User talk:Paalexan

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Masked Man
(moved from Talk:Species)

Masked man? Yeah, maybe I should put up a page on myself someday. FWIW, I'm a grad student in botany at New Mexico State University, and have a webpage at. I'll probably start messing with this species entry later, need to think things through a bit more, first. Paalexan 04:37, 17 November 2005 (UTC)


 * And you have. Welcome to Wikipedia. We always need educated contributors in the sciences. Hope you find it stimulating. Some end up junkies here, and others drift away&mdash;no predicting such personal relationships with the phenomenon. It is a community effort and your approach seems very community oriented, so you will certainly do well.  I'm a zoologist trying to become a botanist, so my interest in your contributions is really one of learning.  However, I am the main contributor to the textbook on Botany at Wikibooks, so I would encourage you to also visit us over there.  A few less people and more chance at personal expression than at Wikipedia, but the textbook is an attempt to meld the two ideas (Wikipedia and Wikibooks). I live in Hawaii - Marshman 05:16, 17 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I might have to look at the botany textbook a bit. It could be a very useful thing... none of the commercially-available botany textbooks are really all that great, and are definitely over-priced. Paalexan 00:01, 19 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Very nice website and great pictures. I'm jealous. I have contributed a pile of digital images to Wikipedia, but your are REALLY cool - Marshman


 * Thanks! I'm still thinking about how much I might want to contribute images on Wikipedia.  I don't might a creative common type usage at all, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the more extreme public domain thing here... Paalexan 00:01, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Ferns
Good to see a new contributor with expertise on these! A few tips for writing about plants on wikipedia: To add italics, place two single-quote marks round the name: Dryopteris appears as: Dryopteris To add bold (used in the first mention of a name on its page), place three single-quote marks round the name: An Antheridium is a ... appears as: An Antheridium is a ... To add bold italics (as in the first mention of a genus name on its page), place five single-quote marks round the name: Dryopteris is a genus of ... appears as: Dryopteris is a genus of ... Measurements: in wikipedia, a space is used between the measurement and the symbol: 20-35 cm, 10 °C (not 20-35cm, 10°C). Saw you mentioned Flora of North America - that's an excellent example to follow on measurement citation. Any queries, drop me a note on my talk page. Happy editing! - MPF 09:18, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Arabis / Boechera
Hi, me again - a query on this separation. The USDA Plants Database (which doesn't appear to have accepted the genus split yet) includes link here Arabis hirsuta as an introduced species; this is a European species so presumably stays in Arabis. The same page however also lists two US-native varieties, A. hirsuta var. glabrata and var. pycnocarpa: are these now split off as distinct species and transferred to Boechera? Or do some Arabis also occur in the New World? - Thanks, MPF 13:59, 17 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Yeah, there are some native Arabis in the New World, but no native Boechera in the Old World. Arabis hirsuta has also been listed in the past as a member of the genus Turritis, which is apparently a bit of a mess itself, though that part of Brassicaceae is beyond my current knowledge.  With the Arabis/Boechera split, for what it's worth, it was proposed in the early 1980's by W.A. Weber but most people ignored it until, very recently, genetic data has supported the split very well.  As a result, it hasn't shown up in many floras yet, though both the Four Corners Flora and the Brassicaceae treatment in the Flora of North America (whenever exactly those two publications come out) will use Boechera as a separate genus.  Paalexan 20:16, 17 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks; I added some more details to Boechera this morning, and in trying to compile a species list from the USDA Plants Database it was quickly obvious that the only Arabis with Boechera names in their synonymies were the CO natives dealt with by Weber - and if I remember rightly, not the first time that Weber was ignored by others only to be proved right later! At least some of the combinations (inc. Boechera drummondii) were published by A.Löve & D.Löve, whether before Weber or not I don't know. I'll amend the Arabis page to clarify its holarctic distribution better. - MPF 23:38, 17 November 2005 (UTC)


 * FWIW, the Love & Love names were a little earlier (mid-70's); they first erected the genus, but Weber seems to be the main guy who went somewhere with it... more recently (2003), there are a bunch of Al-Shehbaz (at MOBOT) names, and a few from Dorn, though I don't really know who he is... it's also worth mentioning that some combinations in Boechera haven't been published yet or are in press (e.g., Windham's publishing a few new ones here for the Four Corners Flora & my current work might result in publishing a couple more), so the whole thing's in a bit of a state of flux. BTW, if you're not familiar with IPNI (www.ipni.org), it's an excellent place to get basic nomenclatural history stuff.  There are errors, but not enough you can't work around them... Paalexan 00:29, 18 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks; yep, know about IPNI (I don't usually use it a lot for wikipedia as it gives no indication as to what's widely accepted and what isn't, but this is a case where it would be useful) - MPF 11:57, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Map of New Mexico counties around Doña Ana
Hi Patrick. I appreciate the map you made of Doña Ana County; maps are most helpful to contextualize an encyclopedia article on a political subdivision like a county. I believe it would be similarly helpful for Wikipedia readers to see the multi-county context in the US southwest of Spaceport America. I wonder if you would consider making a map for that article which would place the spaceport in context within the three surrounding/related counties (Doña Ana, Sierra and Otero), along with the major transportation arteries like you did for Doña Ana. There are some good public domain source material maps in the environmental impact statements, cited in the Spaceport article, at Draft Environmenatl Impact Statement for the Spaceport America Commercial Launch Site, Sierra County, New Mexico. I don't have any expertise in making Wikipedia maps.

If that is all a bit daunting, it would be most helpful to just have a simple map for Sierra County that is somewhat consistent with the map you made for Doña Ana County. Thanks for thinking about this. N2e (talk) 16:56, 1 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Greetings. I haven't been checking this page much, so sorry about the late reply. Making such a map of Sierra Co. was on my to-do list already, so I've uploaded it... without spaceport location: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:NM-sierra.jpg
 * With spaceport location: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:NM-sierra-spaceport.jpg
 * I might do a multi-county map too if I have time, it'd probably come in handy for my own purposes at some point, too. I could also do a more sophisticated polygon thing to represent the spaceport rather than just the big red dot.
 * I voted against the Doña Ana Co. spaceport tax, for what it's worth... Paalexan (talk) 07:46, 20 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Great job on the two maps you made for the Spaceport America article! Thanks very much.  I had not been back to that article for a long time and did not see your maps until now.
 * BTW, if I lived in New Mexico, I would have voted against the tax too, but FOR the legal authority for private operators to build the spaceport with private money. We've gone very far down a road where governments and corporations form Corporatist arrangements to take money from the dispersed and relatively-powerless little guy to give it to the elite.  Since so many governments participate in such shenanigans, the so-called private spaceport folks would likely have moved on to search for a government that would help pay their way. N2e (talk) 01:42, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Picture ids
Hey, thanks for scrutinizing my pictures! Although the Tilden folks are good, it wouldn't be the first mistaken label there. Going by Calphotos, I think I have pics of the actual Boechera perennans in habitat, somewhere in my upload backlog... Anyway, if you could go over to Commons and make notations on the images themselves (at least a warning, and ideally the real identity), that would be helpful. Otherwise some well-meaning editor is likely to come along and add back whatever photos they find on Commons with a matching name. Stan (talk) 15:20, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Map update?
I have placed a comment on the Talk page of a file image you previously created/edited on Wikipedia (and for which I remain grateful; see Talk page section above). If you are still involved in the Wiki-community, I would appreciate it if you would take a look and comment. Cheers. N2e (talk) 19:00, 26 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, I'm here sporadically... happened across your comment today. I've made a modified version & replaced the old one on wikimedia. Paalexan (talk) 10:10, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Copy and paste move
I see that you moved the content of Elaphe obsoleta to Pantherophis obsoletus by copying and pasting the contents. This is not a good way to do it, as it loses the article's editing history, which must be kept for various reasons, including copyright attribution. If you want to move a page to a new title you should do it by using the "move" link at the top of the page. Occasionally this is not possible, most commonly because there is already a page with the title you want to move to, in which case you should place on the page with the title you want to move to, to ask an administrator to delete it and move the other one there. I have dealt with it, so you don't need to do anything more, but I thought it might help to let you know in case you ever need to do the same again. JamesBWatson (talk) 21:12, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Ah, OK. I don't edit wikipedia all that much, so didn't realize there was a "move" option. Thanks for sorting that out! Paalexan (talk) 21:18, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Hm. Tried moving another page (Elaphe bairdi; for the same reasons as Elaphe obsoleta), but it won't let me. Ho hum. Paalexan (talk) 22:29, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
 * If you let me know what title you tried to move it to I will see if I can help. JamesBWatson (talk) 12:14, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I tried to move it to Pantherophis bairdi. I put a move request doohickey in the talk section.Paalexan (talk) 20:43, 1 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I've moved it for you. JamesBWatson (talk) 20:56, 1 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks!Paalexan (talk) 04:48, 2 July 2011 (UTC)