User talk:Corinne

Welcome to my new Talk page. You are welcome to continue discussions started in Archive 6.

Deferent and epicycle

What do you think of my last edit, changing 'mini circular' to 'mini-circular'? I don't think it's good enough; the meaning is really 'miniature circular'. Isn't it? Rothorpe (talk) 19:55, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I felt I had to read the article first, made one small edit, then got distracted with other tasks. Well, I think "mini" should always be hyphenated, but I'm not sure "mini-", or even "miniature", is needed. The first sentence in the Introduction of the article says, "a small circle called an epicycle". Here, as in the place where you made the edit, it is followed by "larger". I don't see why "small circular orbits" wouldn't be sufficient. It isn't really small or miniature. It's just small in comparison to the deferent. CorinneSD (talk) 22:02, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes, 'small circular orbits' will do it. Thanks! Rothorpe (talk) 22:23, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Dar

@Lysozym: I've been looking for someone who knows Farsi and English and can help me with two different questions. Perhaps you can help.

1) I noticed what I thought was a missing "g" in both the "English" and Farsi forms of "danandegi" in the table in "Native word formation" in Persian vocabulary. I've been discussing it with User talk:Kwamikagami and Lfdder a bit on the article's talk page but mostly on Kwami's talk page. I understand a bit more about the /g/ but still don't understand why it was left off the table. I wondered if you had any ideas about that. You can respond either here or on Kwami's talk page.

2) I read the article on Dari (Persian dialect) and made a few edits to try and put it into Standard English. I tried to aim for what I thought was the intended meaning (when you have time, or if you have time, perhaps you can review them). (I also read the article Mullah Do Piaza and found many errors in syntax which I tried to fix and some vague words at which I added some "clarification needed" tags with notes to editors. If and when you have time, you might look at that, too.)

Well, back to the Dari article:

A fellow editor noticed that the pronunciation guide for Dari at the beginning of the article says it is pronounced "Darry" and wondered why it was not written that way in English. I had always thought Dari was pronounced to rhyme with "sorry", but I guess not. But then I remembered reading that "Dari" came from the word "gate" (gate to the court), and I always thought the word "dar", meaning "gate", was pronounced to rhyme with English "far". Is that wrong? If "dar" ("gate") is pronounced to rhyme with "far", why would "Dari" not rhyme with "sorry"? English got its word "door" from Persian "dar". How would it ever go from "dar" (pronounced d æ r) to "door"? Just judging from the sound, it seems more likely that it went from "dar" (rhyming with "far") to "door". I would appreciate learning any light that you can shed on this.

Well, that's all for now. CorinneSD (talk) 02:41, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Hello CorinneSD, nice meeting you.

1) First of all, I recommend the use of the native English word "Persian" instead of the (very recent) "Farsi". You also say "German" and not "Deutsch" and "French" instead of "français". I do not see why "Persian" should be replaced with "Farsi". :)

Hear, hear. Rothorpe (talk) 20:51, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

2) As for "danandegi", you are right, a /g/ is still missing in the table. The correct transliteration into English (based on the standardized transliteration method of the German Oriental Society, by the way, is dānendagī. The /ā/ is pronounced like in "ball" or "ward", the /ī/ is longer than a normal /i/, like in "fleet". It should be noted that this word is a rather theoretic construction, demonstrating the ability of Persian to create new nouns out of verbs. Even though it does not sound wrong, it is never used in speech or written text. The form "dānestan", which is actually a verb, may also be used as a noun and is much more common (very similar to German; for example, the verb "reden" - to talk, speak - becomes a noun by adding an article to it: "das Reden", "the talking", while "die Rede" is "the speech").

3) The correct transliteration of دری into Latin script is Darī, with a short /a/ (like in "apple") and a long final /ī/, more like "Daree". The /r/ is pronounced like in Spanish.

4) English "door" is not derived from Persian "dar" but has the same etymological origin, both being Indo-European languages. German "Tür", Russian "dver’ (дверь)", Albanian "derë", Welsh "dôr", Sanskrit "dvā́r", Gothic "daúr", modern Islandic "dyr", etc. are all cognates, having the same Indo-European origin. The Persian word later also got the meaning of "sublime porte" (cf. Ottoman Sublime Porte), hence the official language of the court - the language of the sublime porte - came to be known as "Darī". And because that language has been usually Persian - in its various forms, from Old Persian to Middle Persian to New Persian - "Darī" is to be understood as a synonym for "High Persian", the standardized literary language which is the base of all spoken dialects of Persian. Another word that - at least according to folk etymology - is derived from the Persian word for "door" is darwīsh, rendered into english as dervish, a lable given to Islamic mystics; these usually ascetic mystics were mostly living in the streets, often knocking on doors and begging for food or shelter; that's how darwīsh, the "beggars at the door", became known as "mystic". The actual origin of darwīsh probably goes to Avestan drəgu-, "the needy one", via Mid. Persian driyōš. Arabic faqīr (English fakir), also used as a lable for Islamic mystics, has the same meaning.

5) Your edits look good to me. Thanks anyway.

--Lysozym (talk) 08:46, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your informative reply, all very interesting. I have no problem using the word "Persian". Thank you for correcting the error in that table. I speak Persian, enough to hold basic conversations, and I can read and write it, too, though not as well as I speak it. I think it's a beautiful language. By the way, and please don't be offended, I'd just like to point out a spelling error that appeared twice in your comment, above. You wrote "lable" when it should be "label". Perhaps it was just a typo. How did you learn Avestan? CorinneSD (talk) 19:33, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Saint Thomas Christians

@Cuchullain: I've been watching the article Saint Thomas Christians and have seen the recent back and forth edits, edit summaries, and reverts. I'm sure you know much more about the subject than I do and are also watching the article. I just wanted to be sure that you saw an edit by the IP editor 117 that came just before the rearranging edits that you undid, something to the effect that the Catholic Church was not in Kerala in 999. (I believe it may have been in a caption.) If you saw it and approved, that's fine. I just wanted to be sure you saw it. CorinneSD (talk) 18:38, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Quick to pounce

@Lfdder: I had already made around 3,000 edits with no problem, and once, responding to a comment by a non-native speaker of English in a Talk page discussion, I made a suggestion regarding a revision to a wording, and Rincewind42 sent me a stern message saying do not edit other editors' comments on Talk pages. She's/He's quick to pounce. CorinneSD (talk) 14:46, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

IPA chart

Is Help:IPA for English more accessible now? Do the footnotes explain the questions you had? Some of us cut down the amount of text every once in a while, but there are others who feel all the details need to be explained. — kwami (talk) 16:12, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

It's much clearer now! I'm glad you put the chart closer to the beginning of the article, and I'm glad you used "fewer" as an example instead of "sewer". Your notes are all quite clear, informative, and helplful. I'm just wondering about the examples of words that have vowel sounds that the chart does not make clear since they are rare, like "fir, fur, and fern" You list countries and places next to them, but (I'm sorry to say -- reveals my ignorance) it's not clear to me whether those countries are examples of places where those vowels are pronounced differently or are examples of places where those vowels are pronounced the same. CorinneSD (talk) 16:23, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Just read

@Rothorpe: I am baffled. See responses to my comment under "Tea" at User talk:Sminthopsis84#Tea's talk page. No comment. Now I'm definitely going to ask you first, unless it's science, or something like that. CorinneSD (talk) 23:06, 26 April 2014 (UTC) CorinneSD (talk) 23:07, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps the first one is a response, but they didn't understand you. Worth another try? Rothorpe (talk) 18:12, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

I asked Dougweller. CorinneSD (talk) 19:29, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Need help

@Fayenatic london: I just typed a long comment on User talk:Oggmus' talk page and saved it. But I wanted to go look for an editor's user name so that I could add it. I found it, and went back into the comment and added it, and saved it. But for some reason, my entire comment appeared twice on Oggmus' talk page, with the addition I made appearing only in the second one. I added that user name into the first of the two versions, and saved it. Then I tried to delete the second one, but I couldn't. Can you either delete the second (or first -- it doesn't matter) version of my comment, or tell me how to do it? I don't know what I did wrong. CorinneSD (talk) 19:29, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

 Done You sometimes get a duplicate when the system seems slow to save and you click Save again, but I can't guess what the difficulty was in trying to delete one of the duplicate sections. You can click the Edit button right at the top of a page to open the whole page for editing. You should also have been able to click Edit on one of the two sections, delete all the text in the edit window, and click Save. Not to worry. – Fayenatic London 20:50, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

It doesn't become you

@Lfdder: That kind of edit summary doesn't become you. I would take each edit summary as a chance to share your wonderful knowledge and teach other editors both what you know and how to edit. As editors, we feel anonymous, but your editing and edit summaries have an effect for good or ill both on other editors' opinions of you and on Wikipedia as a whole. I was turning to both you and Kwami with my questions, having such a high opinion of both of you for your extensive knowledge, almost in awe, and I was disappointed when I saw that edit summary. CorinneSD (talk) 20:07, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Formatting and arranging photos

@Fayenatic london: I just added two photos of outer space to my User page, one of the earth as a "pale blue dot" and one of the Eta Carinae Nebula. Is there a way to put the one of the Eta Carinae nebula to the right of the one of the earth, but in the same size as they are now? (I don't want the Eta Carinae one too small, and it becomes too small when it is in the size of the earth as a pale blue dot one. CorinneSD (talk) 02:07, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi, I'm back to my studies today so please excuse a half-reply. WP:PIC is the page of advice on formatting pictures. – Fayenatic London 06:08, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Thank you! CorinneSD (talk) 14:32, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Need help formatting pictures

I've been adding photos to my User page, and I want to arrange some of them in a certain way. I just read the article WP:PIC and didn't find an answer to my question. There are three different things I want to be able to do:

1) I want to be able to put a small photo under the "userboxes" at the right. I'm thinking about putting the one of earth as a pale blue dot as seen from space there, a little smaller than it is right now. How would I do that?

2) I wonder if it is possible to remove the gray border around some of the photos. For example, I would like to be able to remove the gray border around the photo "Eta Carinae Nebula". Is that possible? How would I do that?

3) I saw in the article WP:PIC#Galleries the series of photos of cats. Like in the first row of those photos, I want to put some that are wider than others. In formatting the gallery, do I just specify the height and not even mention the width, or do I need to mention both height and width?

4) In the article, at WP:PIC#Panoramas, it mentioned that I should not format a picture larger than 550px but should, rather, use the "panorama" template. I have one very wide picture on my User page, the last one, of a forest in Germany. Can I leave it the way I put it? Is that injunction mainly for pictures in articles, or is it also for editors' User pages? CorinneSD (talk) 15:31, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

1. You can add images without adding galleries. That should resolve the "pale blue dot" image issue (it turned out a little smaller than I would have preferred, but the image file is only 180x180px).
2. The galleries specify both a height and a widht, usually. If the image isn't close to square and you set both height and width to 400px, the remainder will be filled up with a gray border. I have resized the one-image gallery so that it fits better. For a single image you could also avoid the gallery altogether and use [[File:Eta Carinae Nebula 1.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Caption]]; that should also do the trick.
3. I'm not quite sure what you're aiming for. The cat gallery at WP:PIC#Galleries gets its format from the mode="packed-hover" parameter. Such a gallery will scale all images to the same height, roughly but not exactly the one specified by the heights= parameter. For all I can tell it will ignore a widths= parameter because, basically, the images are meant to be arranged in rows, where they need to share a height, not in columns, where the same width would be an issue.
4. Personally I wouldn't worry all that much about images on your user page; at worst someone will have problems seeing them properly, but unlike an article, there's nothing but images, so you won't break anything else in the process.

Hope that helps. Huon (talk) 19:37, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Thank you so much, Huon! I see you placed the pale blue dot picture right where I wanted it, and I think you removed some of the gray border on the Eta Carinae Nebula picture. Thank you! CorinneSD (talk) 23:37, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia article on formatting pictures

I posted this today on Dougweller's Talk page, but he said to ask at the Help Desk. So I've copied it here:

I've been reading the Wikipedia article on formatting pictures, WP:PIC, and I noticed something I wanted to ask you about. It's in the section WP:PIC#Alternating left and right. I saw this sentence:

"Perhaps the easiest way to handle multiple floating pictures is to alternate them left then right."

However, the pictures in that section are arranged so that the first one is on the right and second one is on the left. Shouldn't the text and the arrangement of the pictures match? CorinneSD (talk) 15:03, 29 April 2014 (UTC) CorinneSD (talk) 23:59, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

It should; technically we should alternate "right then left". As soon as there are more than just two images, this becomes rather academic anyway - right, then left, then right, then left... Feel free to modify the text accordingly if you think it's necessary to emphasize that the alternation should start on the right. Huon (talk) 01:06, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Revelation

1. Any of the suggested alternatives would seem perfectly fine. 2. The lengthy section on Tillich seemed to move away from the topic and more towards his views on Christ rather than Revelation. That paragraph is more suitable to the article on Tillich. By all means feel free to clean up "Revelations", as it could clearly use it. Regards. Mannanan51 (talk) 21:41, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

Interesting discussion

@Joshua Jonathan:, @Rothorpe: You might be interested in a discussion at User talk:Dougweller#Hi. Although the IP editor who goes on and on is still learning what belongs in a WP article and what does not, he/she has some interesting ideas which other editors are responding to in a serious (and instructive) manner. CorinneSD (talk) 00:19, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll have a look. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 05:58, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, I did. Rothorpe (talk) 13:31, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

Reference Errors on 5 May

Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

• On the Koç family page, your edit caused a missing references list (help | help with group references). (Fix | Ask for help)

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:41, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

I fixed it. CorinneSD (talk) 14:49, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Nickel

@Apokryltaros: About a week ago I went through most of the article on Nickel and made a few minor edits. In the course of reading the article, I came across a few sentences that were just slightly off in terms of clarity. I listed the sentences with my questions at User talk:Vsmith#Nickel, but, other than one brief reply on one item, he has not done anything with it. Since you have a science background, I wonder if you have the patience to read the sentences and my questions about them and perhaps make any changes that you feel are necessary to improve them (or let me know if you think the sentence is fine as is). CorinneSD (talk) 14:49, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

I've tried to clarify "The Mond Process," changed "hydrometallurgy" to "hydrometallurgical techniques," rewrote that one sentence in the second paragraph to "coating chemistry equipment, and manufacturing certain alloys," (since the list is supposed to be a list of actions nickel is used for, and not things that are plated with nickel), and I amended the table to include "metric tons" at the top, too. What do you think so far?--Mr Fink (talk) 15:54, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

It's much better now. Thank you! CorinneSD (talk) 21:51, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Picture on User page

I found a picture in the article Pierre Bonnard that I liked, so I added it to my User page. It is called "The Dining-room in the Country" and was painted in 1913. Before adding a picture to my User page, I always check to see what kind of attribution, if any, I need to add. For this one, I saw that it is in the public domain in the United States, but there are warnings that it is not yet in the public domain in the country of origin (presumably France). My question is: can I use this picture on my User page without breaking any rules/laws, and, if so, what kind of attribution, if any, do I need to add? Thanks. CorinneSD (talk) 19:43, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

The Engish Wikipedia is governed by US copyright law; since the image is in the public domain in the US, you can add it to your user page without any special requirements or attribution. The note about the copyright status in the country of origin is important because the Wikimedia Commons requires images to be free both in the US and in the country of origin - thus a US-only free image may not be transferred. Huon (talk) 20:16, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

O.K. Thank you. CorinneSD (talk) 20:18, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

@Huon:. I didn't realize this. We had a photo of a Korean statue in an article, used to illustrate the archaic form of the inscription, and it was deleted because public monuments are copyrighted under Korean law, and photos of them cannot be freely distributed. But if we only have to consider US law, there's no problem: the photographer released it, which is all that matters. Have things changed, was the deletion wrong, or am I missing something? — kwami (talk) 20:46, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

And I have another question about those notices for the Pierre Bonnard picture. It said not to copy the picture to Wikimedia Commons. I found that puzzling since it was already in Wikimedia Commons. I'm not planning on uploading any pictures to Wikimedia Commons, but what does that warning mean? CorinneSD (talk) 20:55, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

The photographer can only release what he owns. If Korea doesn't have freedom of panorama, the architect or sculptor maintains a copyright in images taken of the statue. The photographer may release his rights, but not the architect's. Unless it was a very old image, the US acknowledges foreign copyrights via the Berne Convention, so a non-free image taken in Korea within the last few decades is non-free in the US as well. The Bonnard painting, in contrast, is so old that it's beyond Berne Convention protection. I see no indication that it's on the Commons, though - can you please give a link or provide the Commons file name? It's not commons:File:Bonnard-the dining room in the country.jpg, and it's not in commons:Category:Pierre Bonnard. Huon (talk) 21:07, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Oh, sorry. I guess I only saw it in the article about Pierre Bonnard. I guess I thought that all pictures in articles were also in Commons, but I guess not. CorinneSD (talk) 21:11, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Unsigned comment

I saw an edit to Talk:Polymath. When I went to look at it, I couldn't find it on the Talk page. I had to go into the Revision History to locate it. I saw that the editor who added the comment had put it right at the top of the Talk page, and had also not signed the comment. I moved the comment from the top to the bottom of the page. I made a new section and pasted the editor's comment. I also added a note saying that it had been moved. However, I knew that this edit to the Talk page, with my note, had to be signed, so I signed next to my note. I didn't know how to add those notices to an obviously new editor who didn't know where to post new comments nor that he/she had to sign with four tildes.

I wonder if you could add that kind of note but also remove my "signature". It doesn't really have to be there, does it? I just didn't want to add a comment but not sign it and then have my IP address there. If removing it is a big problem, then leave it, but let me know how to add that standard note regarding (a) where to post new comments and (b) to be sure to sign comments. Thanks. CorinneSD (talk) 20:25, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Done. I don't know if there's a better way to do it, but no, AFAIK you don't need to sign your name to s.t. like this. — kwami (talk) 20:40, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

O.K. Thanks. What's "AFAIK"? CorinneSD (talk) 20:42, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

As far as... Rothorpe (talk) 20:52, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Well, I was thinking it meant, "As Far As I'm Concerned," but then it would end with a "C". CorinneSD (talk) 20:56, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

"As far as I know". Huon (talk) 21:07, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Oh... Thank you. I hadn't thought of that. CorinneSD (talk) 21:12, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Throw it into your search window. WP will ask if you want to try Wikt, where they have an entry. The other one I use a lot is AFAICT. — kwami (talk) 23:54, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

O.K. Thank you. CorinneSD (talk) 00:01, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

I think I'd rather just type out the words. I'd rather not have to guess when I see a string of capital letters. It only takes a second or two to type the words, and I think seeing the words helps convey the writer's full meaning. But I guess if you see the abbreviation a lot, you get used to it and know what it means. CorinneSD (talk) 00:10, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Rumi

@Kansas Bear: I saw your post at Florian Blaschke's talk page and thought I'd try to help. I had heard of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, who is called "Rumi" in the west, so I found the article on him by putting "Rumi" in the search box and choosing his name from the disambiguation page (13th century Persian poet). In the section on "Name" there are a few sources that discuss "Rumi". Maybe they will be helpful. CorinneSD (talk) 00:05, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Corinne. --Kansas Bear (talk) 01:58, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

My talk page

Hi CorinneSD, I've moved things around a bit on my talk page, to be less confusing. See what you think. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 00:32, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Thank you! Much better. CorinneSD (talk) 00:35, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

(Although I don't mind conversations that go off on tangents.) CorinneSD (talk) 00:36, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Feel free to adjust it further for sense! Sminthopsis84 (talk) 00:47, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Adjust your talk page? Wow. You're very trusting. I could make a little abstract art with it. If I see anything out of place, I'll move it to the right section (as I'm sure you will, too), but I'm not going to deal with contacting technical now. Too tired. CorinneSD (talk) 00:54, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

@Sminthopsis84: You know I'm just kidding, right? CorinneSD (talk) 16:03, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Absolutely. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 16:55, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

A cupcake for you!

Did you know that bananas have flowers like this?

Thanks Corinne, you are the light and soul of Wikipedia. Hafspajen (talk) 01:34, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Wow. Thank you so much! It's such a pleasure to edit with such intelligent, knowledgeable, creative, pleasant editors such as you and Sminthopsis. CorinneSD (talk) 16:02, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

:) looks yummy. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 16:57, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Well, I don't ever remember seeing the flowers up close as in this picture. I think I've heard of banana flowers being used in cuisine. CorinneSD (talk) 18:58, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

What do they do with it? (in the kitchen) Hafspajen (talk) 19:40, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

I don't know. I'll have to look to see where I saw it. CorinneSD (talk) 19:44, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

can you help resolving the issue on the awb founder on the talkpage

can you Dougweller as you said join the discussion on the talkpage 46.45.142.226 (talk) 14:35, 12 May 2014 (UTC)