User talk:Simon Burchell/Archive 16

Books and Bytes - Issue 12
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 12, May-June 2015 by, , ,

 Read the full newsletter The Interior 15:23, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
 * New donations - Taylor & Francis, Science, and three new French-language resources
 * Expansion into new languages, including French, Finnish, Turkish, and Farsi
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 * American Library Association Annual meeting in San Francisco

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks RO; that was a lot of work! Best regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 08:51, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Thank you
Thanks for your PR comments and edits to Chetro Ketl, which is now a featured article. It was a long and interesting process, but thanks to a wealth of insights and suggestions the article is now among our best. Thanks for taking time out of your busy editing schedule to help me. RO (talk) 17:00, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Sorry I couldn't get to the FAC in time, I'm glad it made FA. I was just about to join the FA review, having just wrapped up a GA review... too late... Well done, and thanks for all your hard work... Simon Burchell (talk) 19:28, 10 August 2015 (UTC)
 * No worries, Simon. Thankfully, we had lots of eyes on it, and the end result is pretty satisfying. RO (talk)  19:37, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

A Barnstar for you!
I mean to give you this a while ago; I held off because I didn't want to give the appearance of trying to influence the GA review. Also, I wanted to bring something else to your attention; the history section of the Guatemala page is in poor shape. I've fixed some of it, but my knowledge is basically limited to the 20th century, so I was wondering if you could have a look. Regards, Vanamonde93 (talk) 16:35, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks Vanamonde93! With regard to Guatemalan history, I have some books I can use to check through, and I've certainly written enough about the pre-Columbian, Conquest and immediate post-Conquest periods to fill in some info - I'm not so well-informed on the Colonial period, but I do have plenty of sources available. All the best, Simon Burchell (talk) 08:23, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Re
I understand your point of view, but it should be remembered that during World War II, Guatemala was an observer of the shaft, as in Guatemala and had branches of the NSDAP , and the government closed them. The cruiser Emden traveled to Guatemala and Ubico received. --ElisonSeg (talk) 00:45, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi ElisonSeg. Nonetheless, without a solid cite to back this up, it is original research, and against Wikipedia guidelines. If you have reliable sources available, by all means reinsert the information, but it must be explicitly covered in the source you use (i.e. a specific statement that Ubico admired Hitler), and the source must be cited. All information on Wikipedia should be referenced, as per WP:VERIFY. All the best, Simon Burchell (talk) 08:32, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Maya civilization
See the new section on the talk page "Short count". Senor Cuete (talk) 15:01, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Correlation question
I got a copy of The Ancient Maya so I could see what you used as the source for the article. Wikipedia prefers secondary sources for articles and Sharer and Traxler are to be commended for including an appendix that lists the primary sources for the text. This is not the case for some other heavily used sources such as Miller and Taube. If you read books about the Maya, you will be surprised at how much of what's written about Maya calendrics is dead wrong. Again Sharer and Traxler are to be commended for getting a lot of it right. However they get some of it quite wrong:

The table of higher orders of units of the Long Count on page 102 is correct. There are 20 bak'tuns in a pictun. The evidence for this is described in the Long Count article. Then on page 110 they describe the great cycle of 13 bak'tuns three times. This is impossible. Either there are 20 bak'tuns in a pictun or there are 13, not both. The answer is that THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE ANYWHERE IN ANY INSCRIPTION OR CODEX THAT THE MAYA EVER HAD A 13 BAK'TUN GREAT CYCLE. This is why the great cycle is not mentioned in either the Maya calendar or Long Count article and why the overwhelming evidence to the contrary is presented in the Piktuns and higher orders section. They also say "Our western chronology, the Gregorian calendar, begins with the traditional year for the birth of Christ". Actually the Julian calendar started in 46 BC and the Gregorian calendar started on October 15, 1582.

Page 114 which discusses the Correlation Question states that the 11.16 correlation is based on the "Gregorian date" of November 12, 1539. The Julian calendar was in use in 1539. The Gregorian calendar wasn't adopted until 1582, but this would be correct if one uses the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. This revisionist calendar is used by many Mayanists, but nobody else, such as astronomers or historians. This has caused a great deal of confusion and if Sharer and Traxler understood this, they should have mentioned it. You can find this in the Appendix where they give a long table of Long Counts and proleptic Gregorian dates. In the First paragraph they say: "There are[sic] a variety of computer programs for converting Maya dates to Western dates. There are also computer programs that allow the plotting of the positions of the planets and other celestial objects on a given Maya date. By using these sky-chart programs to plot the astronomical phenomena visible to the ancient Maya on dates given in the inscriptions..." Actually you CAN'T do this with their methodology or tables because astronomy programs use the mainstream proleptic Julian / Julian / Gregorian calendar system and astronomical dating of BC years. An example of this is the date of the start of the current creation 13.0.0.0.0. Most books about the Maya give this date as August 11, 3114 BC. This is September 6, -3113 Julian, astronomical. Actually the times of astronomical events are calculated as Julian Days. The table could be useful to astronomers if it gave the Long Counts this way. This has caused a tremendous amount of trouble.

Page 114, Correlation of the Maya Calendar, seems to be based on Andrews 1951; Beyer 1936; Linden 1986; Maudslay 1889-1902; Morley 1915, 1916, 1925; Rice 2004; Satterwaite 1965; Spinden 1924, 1930; taube 1988; Teeple 1931; Thompson 1950 and Tozzer 1941. Look at those dates. The text certainly does reflect the state of knowledge about this in the early 20th century. Presumably the Thompson 1950 reference is when he re-examined the correlation constant and decided that the 584,283 correlation was correct. Naturally Spinden (1924) and Vaillant (1935) gave reasons for their correlations but as you mention in your article, these have proven to be wrong.

Most Authors are experts on some field like epigraphy, archaeology or something else. Because it's important, they include a chapter about the calendar, even though they don't bother to study or understand it and western calendrics. This is why writing in books about the calendar is generally crappy.

The Ancient Maya appears to be an excellent book and this is why your synopsis of it (113 out of 284 references) is a featured article. You should be proud of your article which you have edited 1654 times. The next editor to edit it has only done 218 edits. But you still have to let other editors improve it. Otherwise it would be the serious Wikipedia no-no of Ownership_of_content. The article should reflect the content of the main calendar articles, not what it says in your favorite book. There are other reliable sources besides Sharer and Traxler and this article relies way too much on them. Should I post this to the talk page of Maya civilization as well? Senor Cuete (talk) 00:45, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Books and Bytes - Issue 13
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 13, August-September 2015 by, , ,

 Read the full newsletter The Interior via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:30, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
 * New donations - EBSCO, IMF, more newspaper archives, and Arabic resources
 * Expansion into new languages, including Viet and Catalan
 * Spotlight: Elsevier partnership garners controversy, dialogue
 * Conferences: PKP, IFLA, upcoming events

Article upgrade assistance request (Pre-translation stage)
Seasons Greetings,

This is in reference to a relatively new umbrella article on en-wikipedia named Ceremonial pole. Ceremonial pole is a human tradition since ancient times; either existed in past at some point of time, or still exists in some cultures across global continents from north to south & from east to west. Ceremonial poles are used to symbolize a variety of concepts in several different world cultures.

Through article Ceremonial pole we intend to take encyclopedic note of cultural aspects and festive celebrations around Ceremonial pole as an umbrella article and want to have historical, mythological, anthropological aspects, reverence or worships wherever concerned as a small part.

While Ceremonial poles have a long past and strong presence but usually less discussed subject. Even before we seek translation of this article in global languages, we need to have more encyclopedic information/input about Ceremonial poles from all global cultures and languages. And we seek your assistance in the same.

Since other contributors to the article are insisting for reliable sources and Standard native english; If your contributions get deleted (for some reason like linguistics or may be your information is reliable but unfortunately dosent match expectations of other editors) , please do list the same on Talk:Ceremonial pole page so that other wikipedians may help improve by interlanguage collaborations, and/or some other language wikipedias may be interested in giving more importance to reliablity of information over other factors on their respective wikipedia.

This particular request is being made to you since your user name is listed in Translators available list.

Thanking you with warm regards Mahitgar (talk) 06:08, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:09, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Anglo-Saxon Armour and Weaponry
Dear Simon: This old draft is still sitting in limbo, and will soon once again be eligible for deletion. Is there anything that should be merged into the Anglo-Saxon weaponry article? If so, are you interested in moving the content? I am not familiar with this subject, but I can do the attribution templates. Or should it be let go? &mdash;Anne Delong (talk) 15:55, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Signpost exit poll
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Books and Bytes - Issue 14
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 14, October-November 2015 by, , ,

 Read the full newsletter The Interior, via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:13, 10 December 2015 (UTC)
 * New donations - Gale, Brill, plus Finnish and Farsi resources
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Disambiguation link notification for December 12
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Kejache, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Chontal. 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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Today's featured article/January 27, 2016
Simon, Maya civilization is one of yours, are you interested in writing a roughly 1150-character summary for TFA? - Dank (push to talk) 21:37, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi, all done. Best regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 12:16, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that looks great. - Dank (push to talk) 19:14, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
 * No problem. All the best, Simon Burchell (talk) 19:44, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:03, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Four years ago, you were recipient no. 19 of Precious, a prize of QAI! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:01, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Today: Spanish conquest of Petén, helping to understand a complex story of a conflict between culture, with inevitable outcome, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:55, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

RfC announce: Religion in infoboxes
There is an RfC at Template talk:Infobox concerning what What should be allowed in the religion entry in infoboxes. Please join the discussion and help us to arrive at a consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:38, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Capitalisation
You may want to review rules of capitalisation in English with respect to "Sun" and "Earth". When referring to our day star, it is capitalised, since that is the proper name of our star. When referring to our planet, it is capitalised. When we write "earth", it refers to "soil", not the planet. — QuicksilverT @ 18:08, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Not at all - please see MOS:CELESTIALBODIES. Sun and Earth are only capitalised when used in an astronomical context:

"The words sun, earth, moon and solar system are capitalized (as proper names) when used in an astronomical context to refer to a specific celestial body (The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System; the Moon orbits Earth). They are not capitalized when used outside an astronomical context (The sky was clear and the sun felt warm), or when used in a general sense (Io is a moon of Jupiter). However, they are capitalized in personifications, as in Sol Invictus ('Unconquered Sun') was the Roman sun god."


 * All the best, Simon Burchell (talk) 09:19, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

DYK for Chutixtiox
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:02, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Maya civilization
I am trying to defend your article against Senor Cuete's OR onslaught. I spend a good chunk of the day yesterday corresponding with experts and finding sources and improving my understanding of the calendar. The least you could do would be to weigh in in the discussion.·maunus · snunɐɯ· 17:02, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

Books & Bytes - Issue 15
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 15, December-January 2016 by, , , ,

 Read the full newsletter The Interior via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:20, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
 * New donations - Ships, medical resources, plus Arabic and Farsi resources
 * # 1lib1ref campaign summary and highlights
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Notification about disabling the Wikipedia collections tool
Thank you for using the collections feature in Wikipedia beta! Due to technical and moderation issues, we will be turning off this experimental feature. Your collections will be available for viewing and export until March 1st. If you would like to save your collection as links on a special Wikipedia page, please fill out the following form. If you are interested in giving your feedback about Wikipedia Collections please do so here.

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Jkatz (WMF) (talk) 23:56, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

DYK for Cerro Quiac
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:01, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Disruption at Guatemalan coup
Greetings, Simon. Could you possibly take a look at this? An IP has showed up making wild accusations, while another, or possibly the same, has been vandalizing the article. It's a little difficult for me to request page protection, since I'm involved in the dispute; so more eyes would be very welcome. Best regards, Vanamonde93 (talk) 02:47, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the delay getting back to you - when I get a few spare minutes I will drop by and take a look. Best regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 10:23, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

A bowl of strawberries for you!
No problem! Simon Burchell (talk) 11:51, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

DYK for Yopaat
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 09:09, 5 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks Cas. Simon Burchell (talk) 09:25, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Books & Bytes - Issue 16
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 16, February-March 2016 by ,

<div style = "margin-top: 1.5em; border: 3px solid #ae8c55; border-radius: .5em; padding: 1em 1.5em; font-size: .9em"> Read the full newsletter The Interior via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:16, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
 * New donations - science, humanities, and video resources
 * Using hashtags in edit summaries - a great way to track a project
 * A new cite archive template, a new coordinator, plus conference and Visiting Scholar updates
 * Metrics for the Wikipedia Library's last three months

DYK for Cihuatán
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 06:02, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Overflow at your citations page
Dear User:Simon Burchell. I am trying to empty Category:Pages_where_template_include_size_is_exceeded. Recently your User:Simon Burchell/citations page turned on overflow. This is probably due to some modification to one of the cite templates. As a result, the last transclusions in your page weren't performed. I have made a temporary fix by commenting out these transclusions and providing a link instead (after all, this is only what the software was already doing). Perhaps dividing the page, or any other method would better fit your needs. In any case, feel free to revert ! Best regards. Pldx1 (talk) 07:53, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for letting me know - I hardly use the page since I stopped using CS1 templates some time ago. One of these days I'll go through and strip out the cite templates altogether. All the best, Simon Burchell (talk) 08:17, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Today's featured article/May 23, 2016
Hi Simon, I'll start work on this one today. You nominated the article at WP:FAC. - Dank (push to talk) 13:36, 8 May 2016 (UTC)
 * OK - thanks Dank. Simon Burchell (talk) 15:42, 8 May 2016 (UTC)