User talk:Hertz1888

Responses will be given on this page to all inquiries left on this page. If you would like me to respond on your talk page, please say so explicitly. Please post new messages at the bottom of the page.

/Archive 1 /Archive 2 /Archive 3 /Archive 4 /Archive 5 /Archive 6 /Archive 7 /Archive 8

Welcome!

Hello Hertz1888! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! —Vanderdecken∴ ∫ξφ 10:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC) Getting started Wikipedia tutorial • The five pillars of Wikipedia How to: edit a page • upload and use images Getting help Frequently asked questions • Tips Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Policies and guidelines Neutral point of view • Reliable sources Verifiability • Citing sources • No original research What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons Manual of Style • Three-revert rule • Sock puppetry Copyrights • Fair use • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The community Build consensus • Resolve disputes Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • No legal threats Community Portal • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists Writing articles Be bold in editing • Develop an article The perfect article • Manual of style Stubs • Categories • Disambiguation Pages needing attention • Peer review Miscellaneous User name • User pages • Talk pages Clean up: General - Spam - Vandalism Join a WikiProject • Translation Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Thanks - Astronomical thought for the day

I'm going to quote this from Talk:Solar_radiation and use it in my physics class today:

“Astronomical numbers are so mind-boggling, it's hard to imagine how any human can handle them. Manipulate, yes—but truly grasp? And yet, as far as we know, human consciousness is the best resource the universe has for being aware of itself!” Hertz1888 04:31, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

By the way, I happened upon your comment after reading up on Ackermann’s function and Graham’s number, so pure math had me primed for this sentiment.

--Thanks! Dc3 (talk) 14:00, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

nsaum75 ^¡שיחת! wishes you peace!

Shalom

nsaum75^{¡שיחת!‎} has given you a falafel sandwich! Falafel sandwiches are a specialty of the Middle East. With a little tahini and maybe a spicy sauce, they are delicious and promote WikiLove. Hopefully, this one has added flavor to your day.

Spread the goodness of falafel by adding {{subst:Falafel}} to someone's Talk page with a friendly message! Give a falafel sandwich to someone you've had disagreements with in the past, or to a good friend.

nsaum75^{¡שיחת!‎} 21:10, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! It has indeed added flavor. Yum! "Eat hummus. Give chick peas a chance." (author unknown). Hertz1888 (talk) 21:26, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

I came across this article and thought I would share it with you, as it seems to touch on areas you occasionally edit. Warm Regards, -- nsaum75 ^{!Dígame¡‎} 04:42, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

תיקון עולם

Peace is nothing more than a lull in a battle; a time during which each side steps back in order to tend their wounds and refine their fighting techniques. Sadly, the best we can hope for in olam ha'zeh is a momentary stalemate. However we must never forget tikkun olam. For our reality is nothing but a boat adrift on water, balanced by permanent uncertainty... --nsaum75^{¡שיחת!‎} 05:14, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

The one sided nature of things here gets really old. Its sad to watch. Transgressions should be punished, but equally so. --nsaum75^{¡שיחת!‎} 05:17, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

A beer for you!

Thanks for all the editings !!! Bambiker (talk) 11:16, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Planetary tides

This idea is often brought up, for the simple reason that the beat frequency of the Jupiter and Saturn orbits more or less matches the length of the solar cycle. However when analyzed in detail, and there is literature beyond what's in New Scientist, the tidal forces have been shown to be utterly negligible relative to the body forces in the convection zone that drive the dynamo and hence make sunspots. I couldn't read the New Scientist article on line, but I did check out the other reference and found it to be based on an obviously flawed report that never got published. Hugh Hudson (talk) 20:12, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

Clearly much more to this than I ever imagined. I respect your analysis. Thanks for sharing it with me. Hertz1888 (talk) 21:02, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

A cookie for you!

Hello Hertz1888! I hope you enjoy this cookie as an amicable greeting from a fellow Wikipedian, SwisterTwister talk 01:30, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Yum! Thanks! And it's completely unexpected. Great collection of quotes on your user page. Well chosen! Hertz1888 (talk) 01:37, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Don't disregard dire dissuasion!

Warning: Hazardous edit summary inside. Unhide content only under consonance-proof conditions!

[1]

Charles R. Apted

For our next project (after the current dust has well settled) I'd like to get back to Mr. Apted. I mentioned earlier how much fun would be "DYK ... that Harvard Cop #1 Charles R. Apted identified the dynamite-wielding intruder who shot J. P. Morgan, Jr. as wife-poisoner, US Senate bomber, and deranged former Harvard German instructor Eric Muenter?" I didn't occur to me to nominate for DYK when I created it, but remember new GAs are eligible too. The nice thing is there's no stupid 5-day clock for GAs. So here's what I was thinking... can you do a look-around for sources not already listed at Talk:Charles R. Apted? There may very well be little more but you're likely to try some search strategies I didn't. But please don't actually do anything to the article since then you won't be allowed to do the GA review. Wink, wink. Again, no hurry. Let's make this a project for the next 3 months. EEng (talk) 05:39, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps that wasn't a sufficiently ambitious proposal

Here's a second project we can simmer over a longer period: Widener will be 100 years old next year. How about if we make the that article an FA by then, to appear as TFA on the anniversary date? Wouldn't that be fun? EEng (talk) 06:28, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Sure, but isn't it already of that caliber, or nearly? If so, most of the fun has already been had. As it presently stands, the article is richly and elaborately detailed, with few, if any, visible loose ends. Hertz1888 (talk) 21:56, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Christ, when did this happen?

[2] I poked around., It's like when Boston Edison changed its name to Nstar -- old wine, new bottles, but a desperate desire to remake itself, without apparently understanding why, beyond a certainty of the urgent necessity of doing so. This "The Harvard Library" has innovative this and seamless than and even affinity groups and marketing experts and brand managers, for chrissakes. It's all downhill from here. We're doomed. [3] EEng (talk) 17:09, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

As long as it doesn't scuttle the DYK effort. Universities used to have departments. Now they have cost centers. And ever-proliferating, jargon-laden management. "Progress might have been alright all right once, but it has gone on too long." — Ogden Nash. Hertz1888 (talk) 17:38, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

You're not seriously suggesting that Nash wrote the "word" alright, are you? Perhaps you could go look it up at the cost center. EEng (talk) 19:03, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

Gasp. It's common that way on the 'net, but "all right" is more common. All right, I surrender. Hertz1888 (talk) 19:10, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

In loco

I found this [4] very interesting -- article by Eliot regarding fire risk (apparently there'd been a conflagration at Wellesley) -- interesting in part because of the glimpses of the minutiae of college life 1850 on. Kids today with their fire escapes and automatic sprinklers and portable fire extinguishers don't realize how pampered they are -- in Eliot's day it was a big advance, apparently, that "ropes long enough to reach the ground were placed in all chambers of the dormitories." See also on that same page re building the steam tunnels (ever been in them? -- I have!). EEng (talk) 05:07, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Complaining you my sentences in which lost you get about were

Try this one, from [5]. Take it slow or you may get dizzy:

His enthusiasm as a collector and his winning personality as a man who him so many friends in the world of book dealers and book collectors that he was afforded many opportunities of obtaining treasures whose acquisition cannot be explained alone on the basis of the wealth which he commanded.

It needs only a small fix but even after intuiting what that was my brain kept getting derailed in rehearsing the corrected sentence in my mind. EEng (talk) 21:03, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Small fix? I dunno. Sure is cumbersome, any way you slice it.

His enthusiasm as a collector and his winning personality as a man who him had so many friends in the world of book dealers and book collectors that he was afforded him many opportunities of obtaining treasures whose acquisition cannot be explained alone on the basis of the wealth which he commanded.

Hertz1888 (talk) 21:29, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

What... did you graduate before Expos? Try:

His enthusiasm as a collector and his winning personality as a man whowon him so many friends in the world of book dealers and book collectors that he was afforded many opportunities of obtaining treasures whose acquisition cannot be explained alone on the basis of the wealth which he commanded.

EEng (talk) 22:27, 11 June 2014 (UTC) P.S. I got a D- in Expos. That's really true. Imagine me taking Writing for Science from some frustrated Hemingway calling himself Dr. Somebody. How clueless do you have to be to affect "Doctor" when teaching undergrads at H? What a joke. (It is a sentence of EEng-worthy complexity, I agree. But without the beautifully complex punctuation. Or the fragments.)

As always...

good to know you're lurking in the shadows. I had intentionally omitted the Camb Hist Comm translation because from my limited (very, very limited) Latin I was suspicious. In my fantasy (no kidding) you'd then reveal yourself to be my LoHo roommate, the Rhodes scholar and double-concentrator in Classics and Govt. Either that hope is now dashed or you're playing it amazingly cool. EEng (talk) 00:40, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Not him. Sorry to dash your hope, though I could still be cool. You'll notice I left it open for you to find a better translation. I don't know enough Latin to be suspicious. Maybe it all depends on whose hall is being gored. Cheers, Hertz1888 (talk) 00:49, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Or maybe you're just saying you're not him. BTW, have you visited the Museum_of_Unintentionally_Hilarious_Edit_Outcome? EEng (talk) 01:06, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

I'm really not, probably not even of the same generation. Viewing the Museum, I'm sure no one would want to be nostalgic for the days of those implements. What a diabolical collection. Hertz1888 (talk) 04:38, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

I always thought it sounded like bullshit

[6] EEng (talk) 08:32, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

It's simply amazing the information you are privy to.[7] P.S. If you must pun, pun gently, not pungently. Hertz1888 (talk) 09:41, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Right now I'm too pooped to come up with a response worthy of those. EEng (talk) 18:12, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Been to the museum lately?

User:EEng#Museum_of_tasteless_proposals_for_ice-cream_flavors EEng (talk) 22:07, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Sick humor, but hilarious. Hertz1888 (talk) 04:45, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Who woulda thunk?

[8] EEng (talk) 03:38, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Who, indeed. If it isn't El­ea­nore. Very subtle. Hertz1888 (talk) 08:11, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Cherub

Hello, Hertz1888! About two days ago I went through the article on Cherub carefully. I found some issues and thought I'd ask you about them. I left a comment on my talk page at User talk:CorinneSD#Cherub and pinged you, but I guess you didn't see it. Now, today, several editors have made further edits, but I think most of the issues I raised in my comment were not affected. Some of the issues are minor, but since it was not my field I thought I'd ask you to be sure before making the changes. If you have time, could you read my comment and address the issues? Then, of course, you can also look at the latest edits to the article. CorinneSD (talk) 23:01, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

I just looked at the article again and see some vandalism. An editor has been blanking sections. CorinneSD (talk) 23:08, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, I am not knowledgeable on the subject and would have to get up to speed. I do not presently have the time to do so and take a concentrated look, but will try to get to it soon. Meanwhile, I do note that the article is back to the state in which you left it a few days ago. Hertz1888 (talk) 04:44, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

O.K. CorinneSD (talk) 14:09, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Solar constant

Hello, Hertz1888! Today I viewed the page Solar constant and was surprised to see that the symbol for the decimal marker was a point and the thousands separator was a comma throughout the page. The SI general rule for thousands separators is to avoid commas or points and to use spaces instead . Since I'm new to editing Wikipedia pages I thought I would add some neutrality to the numbers by changes the thousands separators to spaces and changing kW where possible to W (example 1.340 kW to 1 340 W).

I should have known this is not the appropriate way of altering Wikipedia pages. Therefore I want to ask you two questions: 1) What is the general rule for displaying decimal marker and thousands separator on Wikipedia pages? 2) Is it possible for you, or anyone else, to alter the shown numbers on the Solar constant page to a more SI conformed style?

My interest is not just in the Solar constant page but for all Wikipedia to be as scientific as possible; at least in the display of numbers etc. As you can see I don't have an account for this is just something that caught my attention. I'm sure that I've missed information about how to properly write or edit Wikipedia pages but I'm happy to hear about tips & tricks or any other explanation. 46.227.236.78 (talk) 10:06, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

The relevant bits follow:

• The 10th resolution of CGPM in 2003 declared that "the symbol for the decimal marker shall be either the point on the line or the comma on the line." In practice, the decimal point is used in English-speaking countries and most of Asia, and the comma in most of Latin America and in continental European languages.[54]
• Spaces should be used as a thousands separator (1000000) in contrast to commas or periods (1,000,000 or 1.000.000) to reduce confusion resulting from the variation between these forms in different countries.

I can see how this makes sense. A better place to discuss it is probably Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). - Denimadept (talk) 16:40, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, "46", for asking, and thank you, Denim, for your always helpful comments. I will put a beginner's guide to the basic WP policies on your talk page, 46. In simplest terms, anyone may edit WP, and anyone may revert the edit. There are certain protocols you can read about in the guide. Using the edit summary space leaves a record of what was changed, tells other editors something about your intentions, and helps distinguish legitimate edits from vandalism. Editors are expected to be collaborative. A useful practice (not a requirement) is to discuss major and controversial changes on the article's talk page, especially after being reverted; see WP:BRD. An extensive Manual of Style governs matters of style. A propos the current matter, under MOS:DECIMAL the MOS policy is that in scientific articles it is an acceptable option to separate groups of digits to the left of the decimal point by spaces rather than commas – but it must be done consistently throughout the article. The use of spaces rather than commas is not wrong, but (in my view) will be unfamiliar to many readers and impede their reading. As far as I can see, WP does not make conformity to SI practices mandatory. In general, I believe, changing the established style in an article would be regarded as a major change that should be taken to the talk page for discussion. That would apply as well to the expression of (e.g.) power in watts vs. kW. Best wishes, Hertz1888 (talk) 17:29, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

As it happens, Hertz has the good fortune to be friends with MOSNUM's most prolific editor, namely moi, and so happy indeed am I to share my humble knowledge to enlighten my fellow editors. As good Hertz has pointed out, MOS:DECIMAL gives clear guidance on the decimal point (always "dot", never comma) and grouping of digits (either spaces or commas, never dots). Where MOSNUM gives no specific guidance, Wikipedia does not, in general, say "do what the governing standards body says to do", because (it turns out) there's almost never any one governing standards body for these questions. Instead, WP's rule is to look to the sources on the article topic to see what they do. Usually on a given topic there's a clearly ascendant practice (perhaps because they're all following some standard -- but that's up to them) but if not, editors need to talk it out on the article's Talk page. See [9]. EEng (talk) 19:56, 17 August 2014 (UTC) P.S. I rush to clarify that my extensive editing of MOSNUM focused on clarifying the presentation of the guidelines as they existed -- very little of their substance comes from me.

It's nice to have such friends, and they're so knowledgeable (if not always modest). Hertz1888 (talk) 04:13, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Au contraire -- I pride myself on my modesty. EEng (talk) 19:28, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Speaking of modesty

Check out the "Sacred Cod" link at upper left here [10]. Note the hover text that pops up when you mouse over! (A kind friend sent it to me.) EEng (talk) 19:31, 18 August 2014 (UTC)