User talk:Mike Serfas

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Obama wikiproject notes
Hi, I see you were working on something--I didn't see it until after, when someone pointed it out. Someone on the main Obama talk suggested a Project, so I struck while the iron was hot: WikiProject Barack Obama. Want to merge up? The principle goal I was seeing was to basically drive everything there to a minimum of Good Article, and then work from there once a Good Topic was in hand, for a Featured Topic drive over the months/years. But of course, there could be other sub things too! :) rootology ( C )( T ) 20:40, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Hey Mike, I appreciate your willingness to get involved. I think the best thing right now is to atleast see how a Project goes, and if it doesn't work out as planned, we can always ask to be absorbed by the Presidents Project. However, I do think there is a sufficient number of articles, and certainly interest to be able to maintain a Project-sized collaboration. I hope for your input on the talk page. Thanks a lot,  Grsz  11  05:13, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I think you're adding WP:OBAMA to a collection of articles that are, quite frankly, outside the reasonable scope. For example, Don't ask, don't tell and Stop-loss policy. Unless you feel these should also be under a Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Wikiproject - or, unless you believe that every federal agency, statute, order, or issue remaining in force should be under this project. bd2412  T 21:40, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * As I explained in a comment with those tags, I added these topics because they were specifically mentioned in the Obama agenda displayed on change.gov and whitehouse.gov . Only the articles that I tagged (and a few others that are mentioned but don't yet have entries in Wikipedia) meet this criterion. Mike Serfas (talk) 22:57, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Inauguration of Barack Obama
Thank you for the editorial assistance that you gave to help improve this article. Keep up the good work as we try to take this article to WP:FA.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 07:17, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

DYK query?
Hello! there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath and respond there as soon as possible. --➨♀♂ Candlewicke STundefined 14:19, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

DYK for FM 2-22.3 Human Intelligence Collector Operations
--Dravecky (talk) 09:22, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet
I was just curious if it's still at C class or it's reached B class in your opinion. It needs some work with the cite news tags and a bit more filling out with the sections, but not much. Spinach Monster (talk) 22:55, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Flies and swine flu
Hello, it is true we are not reviewers, however, a town clerk's POV does not deserve to be highlighted over the massive amount of scientific reports stating otherwise. We do have a responsibility here for accuracy, and the scientists from at least 3 countries (USA, Mexico & Canada) in charge, have declared that they have not found the origin/source, and that certainly it was not La Gloria pig Farm. If you look closely, after discussing the issue in the talk page, the Jornada's report was anexed to the "Spread within Mexico" section, as it did create a consideralble turmoil, later proven to be false. Thank you for the very interesting paper you cite. I am glad to learn this. Indeed, domestic flies are capable of mechanical dispersion of infected matter. I also noticed the researchers did not venture to call this a vector. However, La Gloria location and swine tested negative for the virus. Cheers, BatteryIncluded (talk) 22:09, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Like today's (May 12) addition on antiviral resistance
Mike, I'm glad you added back the section on the antivirals. I think it's definitely worth including. And I see an acute ethical dilemma, for when someone is sick, and especially when a family member is sick, the family wants the best treatment, not the second best.

And I would like some general discussion (maybe merely a couple of sentences) on how Tamiflu and Relenza work, for I understand that you can generally only treat a viral infection symptomatically. You can prevent it with a vaccine, but as far as treatment, you're pretty limited. What gives? Or, perhaps that is old school. If so, I'd like to know. Thanks. Cool Nerd (talk) 19:15, 12 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I've now provided a link to neuraminidase inhibitors in the text, but the article has been the object of frequent deletions, so I'm not eager to add much information that is handled in the links. The general idea is that viruses contain enzymes not present in normal cells, which can be affected by drugs that (mostly) do not affect the rest of the body.  See  for a cute graphic of what this one does. Mike Serfas (talk) 01:12, 13 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the link. And, yeah, I think I know what you mean about wikipedia.  Sometimes I think we are reinventing corporate communication, and I'm not sure we're doing any better job this second time around.   Cool Nerd (talk) 19:32, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

H1N1map by county
Could you please add your list of references for the "Swine flu infection exponent by county June 2009.svg" image? Without references, it may risk being deleted as unverifiable. --  CB.. .(ö)  12:39, 24 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I've just finished formatting the references so that they could be moved into the figure caption as a collapsible table. Here's a copy in case further editing moves them again:

How often do you update the county map? By the way, I use mainly the CDC links to the state health department sections on swine flu for my information. Mudkip201 (talk) 18:46, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * At this time it I'm not really planning to update the county map, though I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying. Some of the data used was up to a month out of date, and it isn't clear to me that I will be able to find more recent information.  More and more states are discontinuing the testing of cases or the listing of county specific information.  I made a trade-off between more current data (which in a sense are more sensitive data, because confirmed cases are only a fraction of the total infections) and contiguity between states.  My main intent here is not to create a news resource, but an encyclopedic illustration and data table that users can compare on their own to other outbreaks, environmental and socioeconomic data in the future.


 * I started with those same CDC links, but some of them didn't seem to lead directly to case data. I tried to make the links in my reference section point to the last page before a dated file.  I've since found an independent set of county data in the FluTracker network by Dr. Henry Niman  which I'll be going over soon to assess the quality of my illustration. Mike Serfas (talk) 23:52, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * This file is now in place: Swine flu infection exponent by county FluTracker June 2009.svg Mike Serfas (talk) 17:29, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Barnstar
Hi, Mike. I appreciate your review of the "Involuntary health consequences" debate. Unfortunately the main proponents (Mirafra and Danglingdiagnosis) will not listen to reasoned arguments, nor do they accept the consensus. I'm now inclined to ignore them than try to continue debating. New readers who arrive at the page can read through the arguments already listed and draw their own conclusions. Best wishes. Axl ¤  [Talk]  10:12, 31 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the encouragement. So far I don't think that the conversation has been unproductive.  The issue that we're facing is that several major and powerful organizations worldwide have adopted a code of ethics which is on some points at odds with the ideas (I'd like to think) that Wikipedia stands for.  Such a deep-rooted political dispute will not end quickly. Mike Serfas (talk) 05:52, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Corniculate
I am usually a bit of an inclusionist but due to Wikipedia saying it is not a dictionary, I am very tempted to paste over that definition over to Wiktionary (I just made a request for it on their request page). Would you suggest a redirect to the corniculate cartilage for here though? I was unable to find any other anatomical term that had corniculate in it. Kind regards. I will remove it from the request page (that long list of anatomy terms) to prevent from others remaking it if the article gets redirected. Cheers!Calaka (talk) 09:08, 15 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for bringing this up; I've done some quick revision. Before I added just a very basic explanation of the term to remove the article from the WP:AR2 list of longstanding article requests, but I do think that articles of this type can provide better information than a dictionary entry.  Corniculate means horn-like, yes, but what was the essence of a "horn" for those naming a species or an anatomical feature?  I think that it should be useful to show some examples and explain how they came to be named this way. Mike Serfas (talk) 07:18, 21 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Dude... that is excellent! All that time I had a mindset on "human anatomy" and the update you did on that article just blew my mind! Good job man and keep up the great work.Calaka (talk) 11:43, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
 * PS. That list of all the anatomy terms is now on this page: Requested_articles/list_of_missing_anatomy for future reference (in case you didn't already know). Cheers!Calaka (talk) 11:44, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

HIV vaccine research
I read what you posted at Talk:RV 144. I am sure that I want to research more on HIV vaccine research and develop related wiki articles, but I am not sure that I alone could propose a path to getting anything featured as a news article. Can you suggest an outline of tasks to be done to make the RV 144 issue ready for this kind of exposure? I am sure that I would help with something.

Also, good job with the MHRP wikipage. It is kind of depressing that so many major government agencies do not have wikipages, and I remember wanting a wikipage about them about the MHRP about a year ago. I am glad that you started it off well.  Blue Rasberry  17:58, 28 September 2009 (UTC)


 * My idea to feature this quickly as a news item ran into some trouble as this story progressed. The results described so far have been described as "preliminary", but worse, there's been some dispute regarding their significance.  I think we'll need to cite a good third-party analysis about these issues to support any strongly worded headline, but I don't think we'll see anything definitive come out about it until after the October 20 Paris meeting with the official presentation of the results. Mike Serfas (talk) 09:05, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Pyrrolysine update
I noticed your extensive update to Pyrrolysine, which looks good. I'm a bit worried about the length of the article lead (WP:LEAD), which is essentially the entire article and the level of WP:jargon in the article. Also, as you mentioned there are many ways the article could be improved, so I put a couple of tags in. Feel free to add/reduce as you see fit. I don't have time to work on it now, but hopefully you or someone else will have a chance to keep improving it! Shanata (talk) 20:33, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Re: Health Care...
Thanks for reaching out, but at the moment, I'm not sure I have time to dedicate to such a huge undertaking right now. Perhaps in the future though! —  Hun ter   Ka  hn  02:20, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Request for discussions before making profound alterations
I have spent a long time this morning trying to figure out all the changes that you made to the Health care reform in the United States article. You made so many in such a short space of time that it looked like a putsch! Can I suggest that before making such radical changes in future you discuss them beforehand on the talk page? Making improvements and providing references and deleting or fixing old links is one thing, but major reorganizations should not be undertaken on the fly when it takes such a long time to validate the changes and that nothing has been lost. Also, if its a good idea the work can be shared among several editors lightening the load all round. Thanks.

A lighthearted pun concerning original research (used by some to flame).
I noticed your contribution of the rummary glands, nice. Your mention of that being completely your own work would make that original research, which is not allowable (joke). Is it, have you disected, or is it from research and past studies? (Fractalhints (talk) 13:55, 3 March 2010 (UTC))
 * I assume you're referring to an illustration Image:Mammalian Stomachs.gif. The statement "I created this work entirely by myself" is a licensing template, meaning only that this rather poor drawing is my own work - the shapes of the zones were obtained from the sources indicated in the figure description. Mike Serfas (talk) 05:31, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Save the Children State of the World's Mothers report
Hello! Your submission of Save the Children State of the World's Mothers report at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Thelmadatter (talk) 13:55, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I've just made some further comments. Espresso Addict (talk) 13:29, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I'd actually been "meaning to make" two of those improvements when I sidetracked into .SVG maps, and all of your suggestions were useful. Mike Serfas (talk) 23:17, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Save the Children State of the World's Mothers report
The DYK project (nominate) 00:09, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

brady's lake
File:Brady's_lake_2007-01-27_lighter.png

nice pic

Proposed Image Deletion
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Proposed deletion of Boost (beverage)


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ArbCom elections are now open!
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ArbCom elections are now open!
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