User talk:DavidWBrooks/2014 archive

New England Wikipedia Day @ MIT: Saturday Jan 18
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Concurrency (road)
Thank you for removing the tags. I removed the one part, and I thought it was best to let someone else decide to remove the rest. As for the blank section, I had intended to make some updates to the article, but fell into a time constraint. However, I've now had the opportunity to work on the article, and I've completely reorganized the article, placing a number of sections as sub-sections under "Overview." I think the way I restructured the article helps further eliminate the concern of the article's POV.

Best wishes! -- hmich 176 18:26, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

Machu Picchu and Aliens
Why did you remove some of the info regarding Machu Picchu and aliens? Wikipedia should display all beliefs regarding the origins of Machu Picchu. Especially, since there is a significant population in Peru that believes this. I'm not saying there beliefs are correct, but their views should be offered up to the public. — Preceding unsigned comment added by WikiDoctorRobert (talk • contribs) 13:25, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Just because you can't google search the Dalai Lama's comments about Machu Picchu doesn't mean its not true. Here read this seperate journal article...it states clearly that the Dalai Lama has made this endorsement. http://books.google.ca/books?id=bBHrWwtr_pYC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=dalai+lama+machu+picchu&source=bl&ots=JTLTuBuZMY&sig=2it8Fzq-A5UFh22a7MHRYfIuGn8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CFgsU6PmII-MyAGduYGgDw&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=dalai%20lama%20machu%20picchu&f=false — Preceding unsigned comment added by WikiDoctorRobert (talk • contribs) 15:19, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

You also deleted the whole paragraph, not just the part that mentions the Dalai Lama. There was a lot of good stuff on mysticism in there. I encourage you to read these articles. The articles portray the beliefs of a prominent group in Peru. This doesn't mean that the beliefs are correct. I feel that Wikipedia should display these relevant beliefs about the origins of Machu Picchu. — Preceding unsigned comment added by WikiDoctorRobert (talk • contribs) 15:39, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

April 2014
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Stephane Grappelli
Hello, DW. I found out, after I wished you "Happy Trails" on the Grappelli talk page, that you are an admin. This is a happy surprise as, in my experience, admins tend to either excuse Roscelese's POV-pushing behavior or actively aid and abet it. Thank you for jumping in there and slowing down "the agenda", even if only momentarily (we swim against the tide). If I were making the rules, I would require written self-identification before putting anyone in a "sexual preference" category, or, the considered, published (in a biography of the subject person) opinion of an experienced academic biographer having no known connection with "the agenda". As it stands now, all it takes to label someone is the printed gossip of his "friends", at which point it becomes what Roscelese calls "common knowledge". Oh, well. Water under the bridge. Happy trails! --71.178.50.222 (talk) 02:23, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Disruptive editor and sock needs blocking
This shouldn't take more than a few minutes of your time. It's an easy decision. Here are some links to look at:

Brangifer (talk) 15:11, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:K7L&diff=prev&oldid=612506336
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:K7L&diff=612507425&oldid=612506336
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax&diff=prev&oldid=612462047


 * Since no block has been forthcoming, even in the face of blatant sockpuppetry, the editor has returned with a vengeance and is creating more disruption. We're looking at severe cases of IDHT, tendentiousness, ownership, POV pushing, and lack of competence.
 * Wikipedia needs protection from this editor. We have more important things to do with our time. This is the type of thing which drives good editors away. -- Brangifer (talk) 03:04, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia needs protection from this editor. We have more important things to do with our time. This is the type of thing which drives good editors away. -- Brangifer (talk) 03:04, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Reverted edit
I am not sure why you took such a heavy handed approach to reverting my edit today to Dihydrogen monoxide hoax. You state in the edit summary that you found the lead harder to read (to which I disagree), but instead of taking the time to fix it to something you could accept, you reverted the whole re-write, which I had spent a couple of hours on earlier this week, but sat on until the contentious editing passed.

Your revert removed several improvements I made to the article with my edit, including:
 * 1) additional, fact correcting referencing per RS (the hoax was NOT created on the web);
 * 2) chronological fixes to the "History" subsection per WMoS;
 * 3) addition of the subsection, "Concept" explaining the underpinnings of the hoax, and removing that unique content away from the lede to where it belongs: in the actual body of the article (for instance, that regarding the material data sheet), as the lead is to be a summary of the article body per Lead;
 * 4) the incorporation of the four "See also" links directly into the body of the article per See also section and WMoS;
 * 5) the re-captioning of the pictures and graphics into the Scope of the article (and, for instance, away from the chemical composition, which is apparently confusing to some);
 * 6) other cosmetic; grammar; and spelling errors that I fixed (such as webcite → website) per Copy edit.

I honestly think you threw the baby out with the bathwater here. I certainly don't want to edit-war over this article, as I've already spent way too much effort on it and its talk page this week. I will leave it to you to make any further corrections, as I don't really have the time right now due to the workload of my career and necessary travel in the coming weeks (which, by the way, includes the copy editing of technical written materials). I hope you can see where I am coming from and find some middle ground and at least partially add back some of my article improving changes. Regards, GenQuest  "Talk to Me" 23:31, 15 June 2014 (UTC)


 * I favor restoring GenQuest's version and editing it. It's better than the previous version. -- Brangifer (talk) 03:13, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Sure, go ahead. Maybe my patience with this article has been frayed to the point that I didn't read the edits closely enough, but the new lede was, IMHO, pretty muddled and unnecessarily complicated, and bits of the old lede were scattered here and there and difficult to find with such a sweeping edit. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 11:09, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

chess-related deaths
As with most games that have a long history, chess has been associated with a number of anecdotes, and some relate to games that have resulted in the death of one of the players involved. The reliability of many of these anecdotes is suspect, but some appear to be based on fact.

Chess and death are often linked in works of fiction.

Rice and chessboard problem
This is one variation of a famous, and likely apocryphal, story of the origin of chess:

The King of Hind commissioned a peasant or minister to create a strategy game of surpassing quality. Pleased with the result, the king asked the inventor to name his price. The inventor gave the king a choice, his own weight in gold, or, the king could put one grain of rice on the first square of the board, two on the second, 4 on the third, and keep on doubling the number of grains for every one of the 64 squares. The king hastily chose the second option. Somewhere around square 32, he came to a realization that there was not enough rice in the kingdom. Upon realizing that he could not possibly pay the debt, the king chose to kill the inventor.

The first half of the chessboard would have represented some 100 tonnes of rice, while the second half would have required 1.2 trillion tons (short scale), a value roughly comparable to the combined mass of all life on Earth.

Earl Ulf
King Canute (c. 994–1035) of Denmark, England and Norway, is said to have ordered an earl killed after a disagreement about a chess game. By one account, the king made an illegal move that angered Earl Ulf, who knocked over the board and stormed off, after which the king sent someone to kill him.

Bavarian prince
Possibly the anecdote with the most supporting evidence is given in the book Chess or the King's game (1616) by Augustus, Duke of Lüneburg, who claimed to have obtained it from an old Bavarian Chronicle, then in the library of Marcus Welsor but now lost. The anecdote states that Okarius (also spelled Okar or Otkar), the prince of Bavaria, had a son of great promise residing at the Court of King Pippin. One day Pippin's son was playing chess with the young Prince of Bavaria, and became so enraged at repeatedly losing that he hit the prince on the temple with one of his rooks and killed him on the spot. This anecdote is repeated in another Bavarian Chronicle, and in a work by Metellus of Tegernsee about Saint Quirin and other documents refer to his death while at Pippin's court.

1959 Antarctica killing
After losing a chess game, a Russian at a Soviet Antarctic base murdered a colleague with an axe. Following this, the Soviet authorities prohibited those based in Antarctica from playing chess.

Patrick McKenna 1980
According to the appeal court in the case of Nevada prisoner Patrick McKenna, "In March 1980, appellant Patrick Charles McKenna was convicted of one count of first degree murder for the killing of Jack Nobles on January 6, 1979, while both were incarcerated in the Clark County Detention Center. After lockdown that day, Nobles and two other inmates were confined in a cell with appellant. Appellant and Nobles argued, after which appellant choked Nobles to death. One inmate testified that appellant and Nobles argued about a chess game and that appellant choked Nobles when Nobles was in bed. Another inmate testified that appellant and Nobles argued about sex and that appellant shoved Nobles against the bunk and choked him so that Nobles' knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. After a penalty hearing, the jury returned a verdict of death."

Michael Steward
In October 2009, Iowa City resident David Christian killed neighbor Michael Steward after the two got into a fight over a chess game. Christian was sentenced to ten years in prison as part of a plea bargain.

"Chessboard killer"
Alexander Pichushkin, a Russian serial killer, once said he wanted to murder 64 people, the same number as squares on a chessboard – leading to the nickname "chessboard killer."

Tom O'Gorman
Tom O'Gorman of Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland was murdered by a Sicilian lodger in his home during a game of chess on January 12, 2014. Due to a dispute over a move, the Italian killed O'Gorman with a kitchen knife and dumbbell, allegedly cutting open his chest cavity and ingesting his lung. After the murder, the Sicilian confessed to the crime and was taken into custody.

In fiction

 * In Ambrose Bierce's 1909 short story "Moxon's Master", a chess-playing robot murders its creator after losing a game.
 * In Agatha Christie's 1927 novel The Big Four, a chess master is murdered by a strong electrical shock dealt him in the third move of his Ruy Lopez opening. In anticipation of his opening, the electrical connection was rigged to the square on the board through the floor from the apartment below.
 * Vladimir Nabokov's novel The Defense (1930) is built around the protagonist's relationship to chess, and ends with his ambiguous death.
 * In Kurt Vonnegut's 1953 short story "All the King's Horses", a communist Chinese officer holds a U.S. ambassador, his family, and a number of enlisted men hostage, using them as chess pieces, ordering removed "pieces" to be executed.
 * In the 1957 film The Seventh Seal the protagonist plays chess with the personification of Death.
 * In John Brunner's 1965 science fiction novel The Squares of the City, the murderous events which take place are eventually shown to have the structure of a famous 1892 chess game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin.
 * In the 1967 spy film Deadlier Than the Male, the chief hero and villain square off on a giant electronically controlled chess board manned by lethal pieces.
 * In Dorothy Dunnett's 1969 novel Pawn in Frankincense, a character is coerced into a life-size chess match with his son's life at stake.
 * In Columbo's 1972 TV EpisodeThe Most Dangerous Match, A chess player murders his opponent before a big match. Lt. Columbo must out-maneuver this crafty, but craven, killer
 * Katherine Neville's 1988 novel The Eight centers around an ancient chess set over which two opposing factions have battled for centuries, taking the roles of actual chess pieces.
 * In The Flanders Panel, a 1990 novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a mysterious serial killer seems to be continuing the game of over 500 years back in time, where the pieces of chess are related to real-life characters from the past and present.
 * In the 1992 thriller film Knight Moves, a serial killer commits a series of murders across the city and a chess grandmaster helps catch him.
 * In the 1997 novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, characters become human chess pieces in a life-sized game of Wizard's Chess, risking their lives.
 * In a 2011 episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor plays a game of chess where the pieces are electrified, presumably killing a losing player.

Parody
In 1994, the supermarket tabloid newspaper Weekly World News featured a story about a chess player named "Nikolai Titov" whose head exploded during the Moscow Candidate Masters' Chess Championships due to the condition 'Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis'. The same newspaper also had run the story of Nikolai Gudkov being electrocuted by his opponent after winning against a chess computer in 1989.

irrational
ir·ra·tion·al iˈraSHənl/Submit adjective 1. not logical or reasonable.

fan death is not logical or reasonable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.19.2.53 (talk) 02:47, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Portmanteau
What did you base your statement on when writing that the addition of "intequity" (at non-standard English) to the portmanteau page, was made because of a "trademark spat"? What did you mean by that statement? Please explain. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdpienaar (talk • contribs) 04:35, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

belize
You been to Beize? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ThirdWorldTony (talk • contribs) 22:52, 15 August 2014 (UTC)


 * Long time back, with the family - tourist stuff. Great place; I'd love to return. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 12:22, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

B.C. -> BCE - more neutral
Why did you change this? BCE is a more neural form than B.C., as given in the article — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rkarlsba (talk • contribs) 17:31, 21 August 2014 (UTC)


 * I changed it because Āryabaṭha was born in 476 AD - not BC. You made it incorrect. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 19:22, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for September 12
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Backpacking (travel), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Posh. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ* Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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 * Thanks, but in this case it is a correct link: the start of the disambiguation page defines the term as it is used in the story. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 18:42, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Editing the Chesire Cat Page
Hello, my name is Isabella and I am part of a class project where we are hoping to edit and improve the Chesire Cat page. I saw that you have been part of the editing process before, and therefore wanted to reach out to you on behalf of my team to ask for help/advice. We are looking to add on to each of the existing sections on the page, give the page a design overhaul by adding charts, quotes, images, etc., and to do a comparison of the different cinema representations of the character. We were wondering if you have any suggestions of articles or other sources we could use for our project? Or any suggestions at all on the editing process on wikipedia?

If you would like to learn more about our class assignment, this is the link: []

The other members in me team are: Hannah McGough, Abby Sonnenfeldt , and Carolyn Sussman

Thank you and look forward to hearing from you,

Isabella.krell (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 00:00, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

October 2014
You currently appear to be engaged in an edit war&#32; according to the reverts you have made on I Want to Hold Your Hand. Users are expected to collaborate with others, to avoid editing disruptively, and to try to reach a consensus rather than repeatedly undoing other users' edits once it is known that there is a disagreement. Please be particularly aware that Wikipedia's policy on edit warring states: If you find yourself in an editing dispute, use the article's talk page to discuss controversial changes; work towards a version that represents consensus among editors. You can post a request for help at an appropriate noticeboard or seek dispute resolution. In some cases it may be appropriate to request temporary page protection. If you engage in an edit war, you may be blocked from editing. R ad io pa th y  •talk•  23:55, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
 * 1) Edit warring is disruptive regardless of how many reverts you have made.
 * 2) Do not edit war even if you believe you are right.
 * If you think two edits is an edit war, how have you survived in wikipedia? - DavidWBrooks (talk) 11:14, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

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hiuhfdihsfihifhihfsihfisfhsfihsdifhdisdhsifgdngfkvhdycvxkbxycscshdjsfdhjdfdyhfyhdfdhsyfdshfg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.110.67.131 (talk) 01:17, 6 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Couldn't have said it better myself. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 15:51, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

RISK Dice Probabilities
Hi,

You removed a section of Dice Probabilities from the RISK page. I use that chart all the time. It was my lifeline when playing online Risk and extremely helpful. I check it weekly and sometimes daily. Can you please restore it? Thanks.

P.S. It was the section that told how many troops were needed to successfully take a certain amount of regions guarded by either 1 or 2 troops with a 90% probability. I know there was no citation, but in my experience of 500+ games, the odds given on that table were spot on.

Thanks.

Ajdedo (talk) 07:30, 10 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Sorry, but it was not the sort of information that belongs in a wikipedia article; wikipedia isn't a sourcebook for all facets, nor is it a place to store items, especially unsourced ones.

Here's what you do: re-create it on your own wikipedia User talk page. Then it doesn't clutter up the article and you can still access it. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 11:58, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Inaccuracy+ Song History Edits = Censorship by Omission
Dear False Editor, You are not a very up to date editor on current cover releases for the Beatles ...so it's a shame that you manipulate cover versions pages to reflect inaccurate information for current mainstream readers. It's malevolent to put forth false history by omission. Typical for those who truly know not what they do...Vj890 (talk) 17:11, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

Mt. Katahdin
Hi, my addition to the page Mt. Katahdin was from a class assignment and I did not put citations in correctly the first time. I believe I have fixed this error now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joshsully05 (talk • contribs) 14:56, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

New7Wonders Cities
Hi David, I read the note you let me on "New7Wonders of the World", I did create the page called "New7Wonders Cities", but it was deleted by some wikipedia's administrator, saying that it was not relevant the content I wrote, so he thought that the article was useless. I hope you can help me by creating it again. Waiting for your answer in my talkpage. Thanks!JD3rulo (talk) 05:07, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for helping!
Hi, David, I read the note you wrote me on my talkpage and I recently visited the article you created for new7wonderscities, I'm really thankful for your contribution. Just wanna tell you if you need some help for editing or creating articles anytime, you can count on me, I really appreciate people like you, who are always with determination in order to help someone. Sorry for my bad written English, it's just that I'm a Spanish speaker, but I try to do my best when editing wikipedia in English. Thanks again and remember you have earned a new friend. Have a nice day or night wherever you are. Bye!JD3rulo (talk) 00:50, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

La Jornada
Hola, David, casualmente lei un articulo que publicaste en el diario la Jornada de EEUU, donde hablabas sobre el restablecimiento de las relaciones bilaterales entre Cuba y EEUU, me di cuenta de que tu eras el autor pues ademas de tu nombre, en tu "user page" tienes escrito que trabajas en un periodico, estoy alegre de que hayan personas como tu que estan a favor de estos cambios para que cese la hostilidad y los conflictos desde hace mas de medio siglo. Te escribo en español, pues en el articulo que publicaste (el cual fue publicado en el sitio cubano "www.cubadebate.cu") dice que eres mexicano, espero no haberme confundido y que no seas tu el autor de ese articulo, no obstante aqui te dejo el hipervinculo (link) para que veas que no estoy mintiendo "http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2014/12/17/obama-sorprende-con-el-giro-mas-dramatico-hacia-cuba-en-medio-siglo/". Sin mas, se despide desde la Habana con fe en que se normalicen las relaciones entre ambos paises, JD3rulo. JD3rulo (talk) 16:04, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Sorry for the speech in Spanish
Sorry for writing in Spanish, it's just that I thought you were Mexican, are you a reporter of a newspaper in the US? Did you write a recent article about the reestablishment of the relations between Cuba and the US, where you talked about Obama's decision for beginning a new political towards Cuba, based on the respect of both countries? I'm asking all those questions because I read this morning an article about this news, and the author is named David Brooks, just like you, so I thought he might be you 'cause in your talk page it's said you're a reporter, so am I wrong? Sorry if I'am, although here is the link of the article which was published on the Cuban website "Cubadebate", so you can verify that I'm not lying, "http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2014/12/17/obama-sorprende-con-el-giro-mas-dramatico-hacia-cuba-en-medio-siglo/". Anyway, thanks again for creating the page new7wonderscities, I also added the 7 cities which won the competition, being my city (Havana) one of them. Well, have a good night. JD3rulo (talk) 22:29, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

December 2014
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