User talk:The Dancing Badger/archive1

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Angela . 22:59, Apr 6, 2004 (UTC)

Love your name. Can't wait to hear you perform. Deb 17:40, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

On Wisconsin

Couldn't help notice your moniker. Does it refer this variety of Badger?

On Wisconsin! On Wisconsin!

Stand up, Badgers, sing!

As a resident of Wisc. with two daughters who are Badgers, I was curious.

Or perhaps the variety from Old Japan, with a sake bottle and account book to record your drinks? Ancheta Wis 21:51, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Well, you learn something new every day! I had no knowledge at all of the Wisconsin Badgers, but now I have even greater respect for that fine state. To be truthful, I am not even this kind of badger, I am this kind instead (thankfully, I am not this kind!)

Go Badgers!! The Singing Badger 23:00, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)

If you're interested, 433 Eros has a data box that can be adapted for other asteroid articles. Rmhermen 20:01, Apr 12, 2004 (UTC)

Hi. By Wikipedia convention, pure-number pages are always dedicated to that particular year... so for instance 2880 can only refer to the year 2880 AD. For this reason you should avoid creating new pure-number pages as redirects to asteroid pages. Curps

Please put the number in bold with the name in each asteroid article - the entire thing is the name - 2060 Chiron, not Chiron. Rmhermen 20:34, Apr 29, 2004 (UTC)

Rmhermen, thanks for the note, but surely the whole point of giving asteroids names is so that one isn't constantly stumbling over unwieldy numbers? I think it should be rendered as 2060 Chiron in the title, but in the body of the article I think it's fair to drop the number and refer to the asteroid as one would to if one were discussing it in everyday speech. Don't you think?

The Singing Badger 21:36, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)

In general the first mention (in the first few words) should be the full name, and subsequent mentions in the body can be abbreviated. So the 2060 Chiron article starts with the words "2060 Chiron"... and so on.

The number should always be given if it has one, as in 2060 Chiron or (2060) Chiron, and (35396) 1997 XF11 rather than just 1997 XF11. But if you mention the name repeatedly in the same article, it's OK to omit the number in subsequent mentions (just like you might omit the full first name and surname of a person you were mentioning several times).

Curps 22:49, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Ah, I see what you mean. That makes sense. Thanks again.

The Singing Badger 23:54, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Nganasan

Hey, thanks! Mark Richards 20:54, 21 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

No probs! :) The Singing Badger 20:57, 21 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

prehistoric mammals

I reverted a few of your changes, and put Category:Proto-humans in Category:Prehistoric mammals. Now you'll get all the proto-humans in the list! - UtherSRG 19:39, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Sounds like a smart plan, thanks! :) The Singing Badger 19:42, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hey, I have found a bunch of strange articles in Category:Mesozoic mammals as well as in Category:Prehistoric mammals. They don't have paragraphs, but are lists of genera and such. Look at Catopsalis and see what you think. I saw your name around some articles like this so I thought I'd ask you. I'm not sure what to do with these and am looking for suggestions. --DanielCD 22:52, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, they come from a website made by someone called Trevor Dykes. He seems to have basically transferred all his data onto Wikipedia. It's great, useful stuff but it's not appropriately formatted for Wikipedia. I've gone through a few to tidy them up and basically ended up removing large chunks of repitition, citations, and exclamation marks. If you want to do some more, go for it! (warning: you'll get bored fast!) The Singing Badger 02:06, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

List of paterae on Io

Hi, I've noticed you've completed the list of paterae on Io. However at the bottom of the list it still says "(more to follow)" - can this now be removed? -- 62.189.228.3 15:38, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)

Whoops! I'll remove it myself and trouble you not... The Singing Badger 15:57, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Asteroid club

I see you're puttering about with the asteroids too. If you'll look at the first 13 asteroids (and a smattering of others so far), I've established a navigation format (at the page's foot) and am using a template. I use an applet to browse through the AstOrb.dat and extract most of the template's parameters from AstOrb.dat; this leaves a few things to look up:

discovery - I use Asteroid/Comet Connection Catchall Catalog
alternate designations - MPC's Minor Planet Designations query page
albedo - IRAS page (at the bottom)
rotation period - [1], [2] and the "Asteroid Lightcurve Parameters" link of Asteroid Data Sets (don't forget to switch to days as the unit of choice)
mass - "Asteroid densities" of Asteroid Data Sets (the applet assumes 2 otherwise; gravity scales as mass, escape velocity as its square root)

Would you like me to send you the applet? I'm trying to enlist you in the asteroid project, you see... <evil grin>

Urhixidur 22:39, 2004 Aug 20 (UTC)

Hey, sure ... but bear in mind that I'm not very technical (I don't even know what an applet is!) ... will that be a problem?! The Singing Badger 00:45, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

An applet is a small application. I wrote it using Delphi 8, to which I recently converted (from Delphi 5). D8 switched to the .NET framework, so distribution may be a tad problematic (you must first make sure .NET is installed on your machine, something you can do from Windows Update). I'm assuming you're working off of a Windows machine --is that correct? My e-address is already spam-compromised, so here it is: D.U.Thibault@Bigfoot.com

The applet should be real easy to use; if you think of interface improvements, I can incorporate those in a matter of minutes, typically.

Urhixidur 04:21, 2004 Aug 21 (UTC)

For the Meanings of asteroid names pages, you'll find this enlightening as to how 44610 Bésixdouze got its name. Cheers!

Urhixidur 22:09, 2005 Jan 4 (UTC)

That's really funny! Thanks so much! The Singing Badger 02:06, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

At the bottom of Alain J. Maury's page you'll find how the names for 8184 Luderic, 8636 Malvina, 3780 Maury and 4404 Enirac came about.

Urhixidur 03:18, 2005 Jan 17 (UTC)

Thanks again - keep 'em coming! The Singing Badger 14:05, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

At the bottom of Maik Meyer's page you'll find the MPC notice for 52005 Maik.

Urhixidur 16:02, 2005 Jan 19 (UTC)

A couple of things

Thanks for your work on English Renaissance -- you do a great job there, and I appreciate it. In fact, I've been increasingly impressed with your work here over the last few months, and I thought I'd make you an offer. I'd like to nominate you for administrator. I'm not sure how you'll feel about it (you haven't seemed to me like someone interested in the policy discussion aspect of the site), but I think your excellent dedication to building the site makes you someone who would be a very good steward of the administrator powers. I hope you'll consider it? If you have questions, please let me know. Thanks, Jwrosenzweig 15:57, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the kind offer, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to accept; this site causes me enough procrastination from real work already, and if there were extra things I could do, I would probably end up losing my job! I'll stick to randomly pottering round and fixing things for now... thanks again, though. The Singing Badger 17:19, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I completely understand. :-) I just want to emphasize that, as far as I'm concerned, this is an open offer. Unless you bot-vandalize the site, assume you can leave a note on my talk page at any time letting me know that you're willing to be nominated, and that I will immediately do so. :-) Don't be shy -- I won't pester you every two months about it, but only on the understanding that you'll be open with me about your willingness. :-) Have a great weekend, Jwrosenzweig 18:06, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Cheers! :)

Ah, I was about to offer the same, but it appears that Mr. Rosenzweig beat me to it... ^_^ ugen64 04:06, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)

This is starting to get embarrassing. :)

Time to bring up the barnstars! ^_^ ugen64 02:56, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)

Ben Jonson

Good God, that's some fine work you did on the Ben Jonson article today. --Doradus 22:25, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)

Erm... it wasn't that much work! But thanks. (I don't even like Ben Jonson - most boring playwright ever...!) The Singing Badger 22:42, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I guess it's hard to tell because the original was so disorganized. --Doradus 17:48, Nov 21, 2004 (UTC)

William Shakespeare

Hi, Badger, I did some deleting at William Shakespeare, truly a terrible way of introducing myself, but I left a note on the talk page. Could you check it out, please?--[[User:Bishonen|Bishonen (talk)]] 20:49, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Double Star vs Double Star System vs Binary Star System

Please note the difference between double star and binary star. A double star system is a binary star system and not a double star. Your star articles are mislinked. 132.205.15.43 04:42, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sorry about that - thanks for your help. The Singing Badger 01:35, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Concern about apparent advertising campaign

You've recently added links to Hawai'i and Tonga, pages I do monitor, links to a "Janes" page. I looked at the links and deleted them, as being low-quality, border-line informative advertising sites. Looking at your contributions over the last few months, I notice that you've been methodically linking all the Pacific island groups to Jane's. This may be necessary for a few of the smaller groups. where the only web sites ARE commercial, but if so, more than just one commercial site should be represented.

I can't help but suspecting a commercial motive for the systematic additions. I wish you would relieve my mind by giving me, if possible, an alternative explanation for this systematic linking campaign. I would also appreciate it if you could repair the apparent bias by adding other commercial sites for island groups where no non-commercial sites are to be found. Either that, or delete the commercial links entirely. Zora 03:29, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hi there, sorry if I caused offence, I just added them because I was researching the Pacific Islands and found Jane's sites rather useful and thought other people might appreciate them. Sure, they're low quality and, I guess commercial (I hadn't actually considered the commercial side, I was just looking at the pictures), but they're mostly just about giving history, photographs, maps, etc., and especially for the smaller islands they're actually a lot more comprehensive than the supposedly 'official' sites. As to why I ws doing it methodically, erm... I'm a geek. :) The Singing Badger 14:05, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing

Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 1000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:

Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
Multi-Licensing Guide
Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR

Option 2

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk) 19:11, Dec 8, 2004 (UTC)

Unverified images

Hi! Thanks for uploading the following image:

Image:Itokawa.jpg

I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use {{gfdl}} if you release it under the GNU Free Documentation License, {{fairuse}} if you claim fair use, etc.) If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know at my talk page where you got the images and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much. [[User:Poccil|Peter O. (Talk, automation script)]] 05:16, Dec 10, 2004 (UTC)

P.S. You can help tag other images at User:Yann/Untagged_Images. Thanks again.

Unverified images

I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use {{gfdl}} if you release it under the GNU Free Documentation License, {{fairuse}} if you claim fair use, etc.) If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know at my talk page where you got the images and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much. [[User:Poccil|Peter O. (Talk, automation script)]] 22:18, Dec 10, 2004 (UTC)

P.S. You can help tag other images at User:Yann/Untagged_Images. Thanks again.

P.P.S. Also the asteroid images Image:6489 golevka-s01.jpg, Image:6489 golevka-03.jpg, and Image:6489 golevka-02.jpg. – Quadell ^{(talk) (help)}[[]] 02:48, Dec 11, 2004 (UTC)

Also the asteroid image Image:1620_geographos-05.jpg which credits Scott Hudson, although the license isn't clear. Thanks, Oliver Lineham 00:01, 2004 Dec 20 (UTC)

Hi. Image:4660 neurus.jpg has been tagged as "unverified" since April. If you can give info on source and appropriate copyright tag it would be appreciated. Thanks, -- Infrogmation 06:59, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Italicization of spacecraft

Hi, I saw you removed the italics at Deep Impact (space mission). Would you mind adding some input at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles)? I had thought that spacecraft names should be italicized, but Wikipedia's MOS was not clear about this issue. I checked with my Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) which did say to italicize spacecraft (see my comment at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (titles)#Italicize names of spacecraft?). I brought the issue up there, and another user agreed with me. I poked around the web for some corroboration or refutation: style guides for the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army], and the Economist; a page from a NASA book on spacecraft names; and other (non-authority?) sites ([3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], and so on) all propose placing spacecraft names in italics. In the absence of any guide that said not to italicize, I started to add italics. Could you help clarify which spacecraft merit italics and which don't? We italicize fictional ships like "USS Enterprise" and shuttles like "USS Columbia". Does Deep Impact not merit italics because it is unmanned? I'd very much appreciate your suggestions at the MOS italics talk page. Thanks! — Knowledge Seeker দ (talk) 22:49, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hi there, I have nothing to add except 'I stand corrected'! For some reason my kneejerk response was 'that's wrong', but before changing it I looked at the NASA website for Deep Impact, which seemed to confirm my instinct, as the craft is indeed not italicized. However, the styleguides you list (including NASA's own) seem pretty conclusive, and when I think about it, it seems more logical that if naval vessels are italicized, spacecraft ought to be.

Clearly there's a lot of conclusion about this issue (including at NASA), but I apologise for reverting you! The Singing Badger 23:58, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hi—thanks for your comments. It's funny because my knee-jerk reaction was to want to italicize spacecraft, although I suspect that is because for some reason I like how italicized text looks. I too investigated NASA's site (in my case, for Cassini-Huygens) but didn't find any italics. I don't know, though, if that is because they believe it shouldn't be italicized or if it's just part of the general lack of italics/typography on the web (I don't think they italicize USS Challenger and such, either). What is odd, though, is that despite the abundance of style guides proposing italics, I don't see italicized spacecraft very often in print. Perhaps we should discuss not putting them in italics, although my personal feeling is that by analogy to naval craft, spacecraft should be italicized. In any case, no apologies are warranted; this kind of civilized discussion and collaboration is what makes Wikipedia strong, in my opinion. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would be happy to discuss them with you—I'm just an amateur, so you probably have more experience in this area than I.— Knowledge Seeker দ (talk) 05:10, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I'm no expert on spaceships, but I do work with written English, and in my line of work, you always follow the stylesheets. However, space scientists tend to have their minds on more important things...! If you want to pursue this, my advice would be to look at some recent newspaper reports about space missions, since journalists and subeditors are usually very assiduous about following stylesheets precisely, probably more so than the busy people who compile the NASA websites. Fight on! The Singing Badger 18:15, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Anseriformes

We have a little bit of a problem with this page, now. Please have a look at discussion for incompatibility of evolution and taxonomy sections. jimfbleak 07:00, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Shakespeare's reputation

Hiya, Singing, this is just to let you know that I'm ready to give up on Shakespeare's reputation. I've written up the "British" later 17th and 18th and (gingerly) the 19th centuries, leaving holes where the Elizabethan stage, the international perspective, and the 20th century ought to be, and that's it for me, as I don't set up for an expert on world lit crit and theatre history 1600?2000. Nobody seems eager to provide content, at least nobody who's noticed any of my appeals on Talk:William Shakespeare, Talk:Shakespeare's reputation, or Peer review. Heck, I've even taken to chatting up people on IRC and leading up gradually to asking them for some Billy rep input?not a promising approach, I know? thereby turning many a fine budding conversation into an embarrassed silence. I'm all out of ideas, so unless you've got something to suggest, the article will just have to keep missing a few major limbs. Or is there some secret Wikipedia Shakespeare or Renaissance noticeboard? Bishonen | Talk 10:51, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Bishonen, I hardly think you need to be dissatisfied with the state of the article - it's an incredible piece of work and one of the best literature articles I've ever seen on Wikipedia. It's frustrating when nobody wants to help, but I don't think it's lack of willingness, it's lack of time. I imagine most people who would have the knowledge base for this kind of work are (like myself) university professors, and at this time of year are completely swamped in work. I myself would love to help out with the Elizabethan stage section and I could also write a section on twentieth century criticism and performance. But there's no time! My guess is that if you ask again some time in June, you'll have a much better response. I will keep my eye on the article and maybe do some tweaks now and then, but I fully intend to come storming in there some time in the future with some major edits! Congratulations again on your epic achievement. The Singing Badger 15:34, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Heh. Thanks. Smooth bastard. ;-) Bishonen | Talk 16:17, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Meanings of asteroid names

Greetings, fellow asteroid name meaning contributor. I've worked out a pretty good system for converting the "Lists of asteroids" data into "Meanings of asteroid names" tables, as you may have noticed. Let me know when you're ready to go on past 10000 and I'll try to squeeze out the next few pages. It only takes me half an hour or less.

Alfvaen 03:31, Feb 7, 2005 (UTC)

Hey, that's great news! I wasn't sure whether you'd developed or a system or whether you simply enjoyed typing asterisks! I'll be in touch. The Singing Badger 13:48, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

No, it's mostly done using vim pattern matching, but with a lot of hand-tweaking done after that to fill in the section headers and the like. I could probably automate it more, but I'm not lazy enough. Alfvaen 19:19, Feb 7, 2005 (UTC)

Interesting ... I'd never heard of Vim before ... you learn a lot around here! The Singing Badger 22:22, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

By the way, I that excluding the nameless asteroids from the "meanings" lists is a good idea. Especially if it does allow us to have a greater range of numbers on a page without going over the limit. That's something else I can probably do easily in vim... Alfvaen 04:48, Feb 8, 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I've converted 11001-12000, including semi-automatically-deleting the unnamed 'roids. I wish Schmadel wasn't classified as a reference book; I actually have to make time to go to the University library and sit in their computer lab and type the stuff in. It seems to take me about half an hour for a hundred names, too...and their copy only goes up to 6000 or so, too. Why isn't this information available for free online? Without us having to do it?

Awesome work! Yes, I don't think this is a project that will be finished any time this decade. I imagine the reason this information isn't free online is that nobody gives a toss...! Plus, after Schmadel did all that work I guess he deserves some royalties from his book. They have the 2nd edtn in my library, but even that only goes up to 15,000. Still, I must say, this is one of the best procrastination projects I have ever encountered - who needs real work?! :) The Singing Badger 13:52, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Eleven thousand apologies; I meant to get to the conversion last night, but it slipped my mind, and I might not have any time to do it before Wednesday night. Can you wait? Alfvaen 18:24, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)

Of course!!! It's not as if I'm paying you! The Singing Badger 18:28, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, I ended up with a free evening, but it looks like Urhixidur beat me to it anyway. Maybe I'll do the next batch anyway... Alfvaen 05:20, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

Asteroid images and licensing

You don't seem to be responsive to image copyright questions. If we can't determine the copyright statuses of your images, they will soon be deleted. They're good images, and we'd like to keep them around. Please let me know the source and copyright information for the images people have asked you about above. – Quadell ^{(talk) (sleuth)} 23:24, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

Hi, I have actually been trying. Most of the images seem to be originally from the Arecibo Radio Telescope but I can't find any information on whether or not they're copyrighted (I'm sure they wouldn't mind the images being used for educational purposes, but they don't say for certain). I'll have another go, but their website isn't very helpful.

Do you know where Image:1620 geographos-05.jpg came from? It's on WP:IS for tagging... --Tagishsimon (talk)

It came from here, but that isn't much help. These images were created by Scott Hudson, a radar scientist, but I have been unable to locate a specific source for this particular image. The Singing Badger 20:50, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I've posted your comment in WP:IS. We'll dig around. FYI, I;ve emailed Dr. Hudson to ask for permission to reproduce it. best wishes --Tagishsimon (talk)

Image:Sackville.JPG

Hi. I have a question about Image:Sackville.JPG. Did you take this photo? If not, do you remember where it came from? Thanks, – Quadell ^{(talk) (sleuth)} 19:03, Mar 11, 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I took it. I'm not sure which copyright tag to use, maybe you could add it for me? The Singing Badger 21:58, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I'd be delighted. – Quadell ^{(talk) (sleuth)} 23:32, Mar 11, 2005 (UTC)

Eukelade (moon)

You wrote:

«It is named after Eukelade, described by some Greek writers as one of the Muses, and thus a daughter of Zeus (Jupiter).»

Find one author, just one! I couldn't, and I tried all sorts of spelling variations.

Urhixidur 04:19, 2005 Apr 3 (UTC)

Urhixidur, you may be able to help here. The only reference I've found is in a French book about Hesiod but I'm not confident that I've translated it right. It mentions Eukelade, Helike and Thelxinoe and says that "certains" give these names for the Muses instead, but as as far as I can tell it doesn't say who those "certains" were. Could you translate this and see if I've missed anything?

Les neufs déesses inventèrent, Clio, l'histoire, Thalie la culture des plantes, Euterpe, la flûte, Melpomène, le chant, Terpsichore la danse du choeur, Érato les chants nuptiaux et la danse, Polymnie l'agriculture, Uranie, l'astrologie, Calliope, la poésie. De là et à cause de telles découvertes, elles firent l'objet de récits fabuleux en tant que déesses et furent nommées les Muses à cause de l'art de la connaissance. Et maintenant chaque homme et chaque femme qui les recherche et qui les désire est dit musicien et muse, de même que chacun qui se soucie de l'art musical. En effet neuf joueuses de flûte, que l'on appelait les Muses, suivaient ce Dionysos Osiris qui aime l'agriculture lorsqu'il enseignait l'art de cultiver. Certains autres disent que les premières à avoir été les neuf Muses sont : Callichoré, Hélikè, Eunikè, Telxinoè, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Eukéladè, Dia, Enopé ;ils ne savent pas, à ce qu'il semble, ce qui m'a été dit récemment : chaque homme qui désire quelque art, et de même chaque femme, reçoit le nom de Musicien et Muse. De là, celles qu'ils nomment ne sont pas les seules muses, mais on peut en trouver des milliers d'autres. Et certains disent que toutes celles qu'on nomme les Muses sont vierges ; certains disent que les autres le sont, à l'exception des neuf que l'on trouve chez Hésiode. En effet, parmi elles, de Clio et Magnès sont nés Ialémos (1) et Hyménaeos ;d'Euterpe et de Strymon, ou selon certains de Terpsichore, Rhésos, d'Apollon de Carbas(*) et de Thalie(2), Palaephatos ; d'Uranie et d'Apollon ou du fils de Piéros, Linos (3); de Melpomène ou selon certains de Terpsichore et d'Achéloos, les Sirènes ; de Terpsichore ou de Melpomène et de Linos le fils d'Apollon, ou selon certains de Laros ; d'Erato et d'Aethlios le fils d'Endymion ou de Philammon, Thamyris ; de Polymnie et de Céléos (4), ou de Cheimarros le fils d'Arès, Triptolème ; de Calliope et d'Oeagre, Orphée.

Elles sont neuf soeurs ; voici les découvertes des Muses : Clio, la rhétorique, Euterpe, l'art de la flûte, Thalie la comédie, Melpomène, la tragédie, Terpsichore, l'art de jouer de la cithare, Érato, la poésie, Polymnie, la géométrie, Uranie l'astronomie, Calliope les chants ; il dit qu'elle est la plus importante de toutes, parce que la parole est plus importante que chaque science, ou bien parce que la poétique est plus importante.

Roughly:

Each of the nine goddesses invented something: Clio - History, Thalia - "plant husbandry", Euterpe - the flute, Melpomène - song, Terpsichore - choral dance (?! is it « ch?ur » or « c?ur »?), Érato - dance and nuptial song, Polymnia - agriculture, Urania - astrology (sic), Calliope, poetry. Hence, and because of these inventions, they became the subject of fabulous tales as goddesses and were named the Muses because of the art of knowledge. And now each man or woman who pursues and strives after them is named a musician and a muse, as are all those interested in the musical art. Indeed nine flute-players, called the Muses, followed Dionysos Osiris who taught agriculture. Others say that the first nine Muses were : Callichoré, Hélikè, Eunikè, Telxinoè, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Eukéladè, Dia, Enopé; they ignore, as far as I can tell, what was taught me recently: that each man (or woman) who strives after some art is named Musician and Muse. Hence, those that they name are not the only muses, and we can find thousands of others. Some say that all Muses are virgins; others that they all are except for Hesiod's nine. This because Clio and Magnès begat Ialémos (1) and Hyménaeos; Euterpe (or Terpsichore, according to some) and Strymon begat Rhésos; Apollo of Carbas(*) and Thalia(2) begat Palaephatos; Urania and Apollo (or a son of Piéros) begat Linos (3); Melpomène (or Terpsichore, according to some) and Achéloos begat the Sirens; Terpsichore (or Melpomène) and Linos, son of Apollo (or Laros) [there seems to be a missing bit here]; Erato and Aethlios, son of Endymion (or Erato and Philammon) begat Thamyris; Polymnia and Céléos (4) (or Cheimarros son of Ares) begat Triptolemus; Calliope and Oeagre begat Orpheus.

They are nine sisters, and these are their discoveries: Clio, rhetoric, Euterpe, flute-playing, Thalia comedy, Melpomène, tragedy, Terpsichore, cithar-playing, Érato, poetry, Polymnia, geometry, Urania astronomy, Calliope, song; he (Hesiod) says she is the most importante of all, because the word is paramount over each science, or else because poetry is more important.

If you could cite that book (or ideally the Hesiod passages it refers to), it would improve the Eukelade article immensely.

Urhixidur 22:08, 2005 Apr 14 (UTC)

Thank you for the translation, that is very helpful. I'll get to work! The Singing Badger 13:11, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

AstOrb Browser 1.30

Just an additional quick note to let you know that AstOrb Browser has been updated to version 1.30 --this update fixes serious problems the previous versions were having with Unicode names. The Quick-And-Dirty Guide has been updated as well. There has also been a minor improvement to the Search interface. Enjoy! Urhixidur 22:08, 2005 Apr 14 (UTC)

Singing badger's reversion of changes

I am really sorry that you consider my changes to be of no value.

Norn->fate. OK, it is not a big deal. I called Urd "fate" because it is a common translation for "norn".

Iduna. It seems extremely unlikely that a Stockholm club named Ydun should be given as "Iduna" especially when Iduna is a form of the Norse goddess Idun.

Thule appears in early works as a name for Scandinavia.

Yrsa was the mother of Rolf Krake and the wife of Adils in Norse mythology. You could have bothered to go beyond Schmadel when verifying this fact.

Ingeborg was the woman in a famous love story with Hjalmar in Norse mythology. Again you could have bothered to go beyond Schmadel when verifying this.

One of the reasons behind Wikipedia is that users can correct information when needed. You say that you have given me a warning. Perhaps we should take this to rfc?--Wiglaf 07:14, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oh dear, I wasn't trying to hurt any feelings! I admit I over-reacted slightly, but I was trying to preserve the factual accuracy of these pages. The reason I reverted was because Schmadel researched extensively the reasons why asteroid discoverers chose these names, usually studying their own published writings or notebooks. Sometimes his findings are surprising, and this makes people want to 'correct' them. I just wanted to stress that these 'corrections' are often wrong, and that the book should be checked first. However, you're right that it's fair to extrapolate beyond Schmadel (as long as his own uncertainty is made clear and our own guesses are not presented as 'fact').

Allow me to justify myself on the individual cases:

Norns/fates - I don't have strong feelings about this.

Idun - it may well seem odd, but according to Schmadel this asteroid was named after a club where an astronomical conference was held. Of course, the club was probably named after the goddess ... but the asteroid is named after the club. (I guess you're right that it's better to add all this info, but I was trying to keep things short).

Thule Again, I don't have strong views; it seems that Thule is often identified with Scandinavia, and sometimes not - the point of this page is simply to link the user to Wikipedia's article so that they can get more detailed information.

Yrsa - I see what you've done with your recent addition and that seems fair enough; my apologies.

Ingeborg - yes, she's a mythological heroine. I am also willing to bet that thousands of Scandinavian women are also named Ingeborg; many asteroids are named after astronomer's wives or daughters, hence my desire to stress that the true meaning is 'unknown'. But you're right that it's valid to add the possibility.

In summary, I'm sorry we had this little argument, but I hope you'll agree that the pages are now more accurate than they would have been had your original additions been left as they were. You have made me think twice about how these pages should be worded, and I am very grateful for that. The Singing Badger 00:53, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I am also sorry that we've had this argument. I should have extrapolated more. I think that your modifications have improved my additions. As for Ingeborg, yes you're right, but the mythical Ingeborg was reason why the name reappeared in modern times.--Wiglaf 06:54, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Stratford-upon-Avon - London by rail

Re your recent amendment to the Stratford-upon-Avon article: Direct rail services Stratford - Paddington and v.v. were withdrawn last December when Chiltern Railway took over from First Great western Link and Central Trains on the Leamington - Stratford route. Of course, it's still possible to travel to Paddington from Stratford, but as journeys to Paddington now require changing trains at least twice en route (at various combinations of Leamington, Banbury, Oxford, Didcot, and Reading) it's stretching it rather a lot to say that the town has "a rail service to London Paddington". On the other hand, there are up to 8 direct trains a day to London Marylebone. -- Picapica 17:45, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Really?! Thanks for letting me know - haven't been to Stratford for a while... sorry for the out-of-date info... The Singing Badger 21:38, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ingen problem, min Sjungande Grävling.. :) – Black-and-white fauna of the world, unite! -- Picapica 22:23, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Naming conventions question

Hey, I have a question, and given your knowledge of both astronomy and style, I figured you'd be perfect. While browsing random articles, I came across Nicholson (Lunar crater). Figuring the capitalized L was a mistake, I dropped a note on the talk page and moved the article to Nicholson (lunar crater). I was about to go and update all the links, when I saw that there were several other articles also disambiguated as "(Lunar crater)". Since WP's naming convention is to only capitalize the first word (and besides, crater isn't capitalized), and I don't believe "lunar" is a proper adjective (is that a term?), it should be lowercased, right? Or shouldn't it? Thanks for any help you can give. — Knowledge Seeker দ 04:51, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi there, as far as I can tell 'lunar' should definitely be lowercase. (Which is odd, since 'Martian' is uppercase - I wonder why one isn't a proper adjective and the other isn't?) The Singing Badger 02:09, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Brilliant

Just wanted to let you know that you have the best user name ever. Thanks for making me laugh. Karatloz 00:31, 18 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

My pleasure. The Singing Badger 00:59, 18 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Philadelphia Inquirer Doubts Your Scholarship

However, its lengthy article on Shakespeare appears to be impressive but is frequently edited by, among many unidentified others, the "wise and all knowing" Singing Badger.

Enjoy, Lotsofissues 23:29, 19 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

How funny!! Fame and glory beckons! The Singing Badger 23:44, 19 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Asbolus image copyright

Image:8405 asbolus.jpg

Image deletion warning

The image Image:8405 asbolus.jpg has been listed at Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images. If the image's copyright status cannot be verified, it will be deleted. If you have any information on the source or licensing of this image, please go there to provide the necessary information.

Burgundavia (✈ take a flight?) 16:52, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

Image:8405 asbolus.jpg

Image deletion warning

The image Image:8405 asbolus.jpg has been listed at Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images. If the image's copyright status cannot be verified, it will be deleted. If you have any information on the source or licensing of this image, please go there to provide the necessary information.

Burgundavia (✈ take a flight?) 16:53, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

It's from a NASA affiliate, there's no copyright problem. I'll post a note.

A query

Hello, wise and all-knowing Singing Badger! Are you absolutely positively undoubtedly adamantly certainly no-doubt-about-it sure that you don't want to be an admin? :) – ugen64 04:09, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No. I'm just too busy right now! It would make me procrastinate. But thanks for asking - try again some time! :) The Singing Badger 11:18, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

lots of edits, not an admin

Hi - I made a list of users who've been around long enough to have made lots of edits but aren't admins. I see by the previous comment you're not currently interested in being an admin, but if you become interested, can you please add an '*' immediately before your name in this list? I've suggested folks nominating someone might want to puruse this list, although there is certainly no guarantee anyone will ever look at it (and there's no particular guarantee I'll keep it up to date either!). Thanks. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:36, Jun 26, 2005 (UTC)

Áine

Hello, since you created the article Áine and then made it a redirect to Aine, you may be interested in voting on the question of whether to move Aine to Áine. --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 12:21, 30 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Shakespeare again

Dear and most honorable Chanting Wossname, I would hereby most humbly ask you to illuminate which books you use as a reference when it comes to correcting the Shakespearean articles. I am part of a university project evaluating the quality and completeness of the articles about Shakespeare and I was wondering whether the Wordsworth Dictionary of Shakespeare might be among your sources, as many subarticles are quite close to what i find in that book... We are just counting the edits per author in all Shakespeare-related articles and you are the unchallenged numero uno with 456 edits (more than your fellow contributors Bishonen (146), Alabamaboy (139) and Lord Emsworth (119) together). Clap clap! Unfortunately the wiki of our project is in German, but i'll try and internationalize that. It would be an honour to hear from you, Mehothra